•Kayode Fayemi
Former Governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, has urged the federal government to address the increasing brain drain in Nigeria’s healthcare sector, improve working conditions of medical professionals, strengthen diaspora engagement and negotiate agreements with countries recruiting the nation’s health workers.
Fayemi said Nigeria must move beyond lamenting the exodus of doctors and other health professionals to creating conditions that would make them willing to remain in the country or contribute to its healthcare system from abroad, reports The Guardian.
The former governor spoke yesterday while delivering the maiden convocation lecture of the Federal University of Health Sciences, Ila-Orangun (FUHSI), Osun State.
In the lecture, titled “Rethinking 21st Century Specialised Medical University in the Nigerian Context: Are the Challenges Surmountable?” Fayemi identified poor remuneration, inadequate medical facilities, limited career progression and insufficient postgraduate training opportunities as factors driving health workers abroad.
He said the country was investing public resources in training medical personnel only for wealthier nations to benefit from their expertise after graduation.
The former governor, however, warned against coercive measures to prevent health workers from leaving Nigeria, saying that the country should focus on making its healthcare system attractive enough to retain them.
Fayemi also called for agreements with countries recruiting Nigerian health workers, saying that destination countries should contribute to training replacement personnel and strengthening the institutions that produced the professionals they employed.
He said such arrangements should form part of Nigeria’s bilateral negotiations with countries benefiting from its health workforce.
Besides, the former governor urged the government to improve salaries, provide functional medical equipment and reliable electricity, expand career opportunities and increase residency and fellowship positions.
He added that health workers serving underserved communities should receive incentives, including housing and access to postgraduate training.
The former minister also urged the federal and state governments, teaching hospitals, regulatory agencies and university governing councils to collaborate in strengthening medical education, research and healthcare delivery.
He said that specialised medical universities needed adequate and predictable funding, institutional autonomy and effective accountability to fulfil their mandates.
Also speaking, the Vice Chancellor of FUHSI, Prof. Akeem Olawale Lasisi, said the university had grown its student population to 3,332 and completed more than 20 infrastructural projects within five years of its establishment.
Lasisi, while outlining the university’s achievements in infrastructure, academic development, research and healthcare delivery despite constraints in funding and manpower, said the institution, established in 2021, commenced academic activities under its pioneer principal officers appointed in January 2022 and had graduated its first set of students in four-year programmes without academic interruption, among others.
