By Kolawole Ojebisi
Former Nigeria President, Olusegun Obasanjo, has advised the Federal Government on how to stem the rising tide of emigration, popularly known as Japa syndrome, among Nigerian doctors.
Obasanjo called on the government to incentivise doctors and other healthcare workers to prevent them from migrating abroad.
He gave the piece of advice, on Tuesday, during the inauguration of the Yeriman Bakura Specialist Hospital in Zamfara.
While lamenting that the migration of specialized and trained health workers is worsening the country’s healthcare sector, Obasanjo insisted that the infrastructure upgrades must be matched with policies and incentives to keep the workers.
His word, “For hospitals, especially when many Nigerians who have been trained as medical personnel are ‘japa-ing’, which is going out of the country, looking for better conditions, how do you hold them here? You have to give them a bit of incentive.
“You need the right environment and that is the refurbishing, renovation but you need the right equipment and then you need the personnel” he added.
The Ministry of Health has been lamenting the rapid rate at which health workers, particularly doctors, are leaving the country in droves for foreign climes in search of greener pastures.
Recall that at the May 2025 NMA Annual Delegates Congress and General Meeting held in Katsina State, the President of the Nigerian Medical Association, Prof Bala Audu, stated that over 15,000 doctors had left the country in the past five years.
According to Audu, this has negatively affected the doctor to patient ratio in Nigeria, adding that one doctor now attends to 8,000 patients.
