When medical personnel in Africa’s most populous country flee overseas, there is a big problem.
Who caters to Nigeria’s over 200 million population when less than half of registered doctors practise in the country and the larger percentage have migrated to greener pastures? Worse still, there is less investment in healthcare infrastructure. Who bears the brunt of the exodus more?
Aisha Isah, 54, wife of Shakwata’s village head, is a traditional birth attendant and a mother of seven children. The primary health centre in SHE village, Shiroro LGA in Niger state, is also manned by health extension workers. Hadiza Shehu, a birth attendant at the centre, said women in the village rarely visit the facility since they do not get the services they need.The sorry state of the primary healthcare centre at SHE village… Photo credit: Taiwo Adebulu
Alheri has resorted to herbs since drugs are always unavailable at the health centre… Photo credit: Taiwo Adebulu At Babangida She village in Shiroro LGA, when the situation became dire and help came from nowhere, the women started contributing money to make the health centre work, but now they are tired. Abarah Saleh,of the village, said it is stressful to make sure their families don’t go hungry and still be worried about them falling sick because of the poor state of the facility.Zainab, Saleh’s wife, said the women are often scared of emergency health crises.
Other times, it is more than the prayer that makes the mission houses attractive. At government hospitals, the waiting time is usually long because there are just a few medical personnel attending to many women, some of whom are heavily pregnant. When a doctor or nurse eventually attends to you, it is brief, and they quickly move on to the next person.
A senior worker at Doka Model Primary Healthcare, Tofa LGA, who didn’t want to be named, said some mothers-in-law also stop many women from delivering their children at the hospital, claiming that strong women give birth at home. In some cases, their husbands stop them. “We have improved from one or two women per day to 20–25 women per month. So, this is a great improvement. I can say that 50 percent of women from the community now attend antenatal. Women from the nearby towns also trek to this place for medical assistance,” Mu’awiyya said.
In April, Abubakar Yusuf, commissioner for health in Kano, said the state is committed to ending maternal mortality. In April, the MDCN said that due to the increase in migration of medical workers, only 58,000 doctors, which amounts to 45 per cent, renewed their annual practice licence in 2023 – out of the 130,000 registered doctors in the country. Ali Pate, the minister of health, lamented that there is still a huge distribution challenge, as a significant percentage of the remaining doctors are in urban areas like Lagos and Abuja. This leaves rural areas with few or no qualified healthcare professionals.
New mothers in Ipapo community, Oyo state, dance around town to celebrate their safe deliveries… Photo credit: Taiwo Adebuluin maternal and infant mortality rates. In 2017, the World Health Organisation estimated Nigeria’s maternal mortality rate at 917 per 100,000 live births; it increased by nearly 14% in 2020 to reach 1,047 deaths.
In an interview with Happy Adedapo, the Oyo state NMA chairman, he said the government is too clever by half and needs to back its words with actions. “The government is just too clever by half. Increasing the number of medical school admissions won’t solve it. You are actually increasing the number of doctors for export. They will leave in the long run. That’s the implication. Until you address what is driving these people away — what is pushing and pulling them — nothing will change. The medical association has always provided solutions, but it is up to the government to listen.
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