Federal Govt Urged To Improve Doctors’ Welfare, Curb Migration

A former Ekiti State governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, has called on the federal government to improve the remuneration, working conditions and career prospects of health professionals to stem the migration of Nigerian doctors abroad.

He also urged the government to negotiate structured agreements requiring countries that recruit Nigerian health workers to contribute towards training replacements.

Fayemi made the recommendations recently when he delivered a convocation lecture titled, “Rethinking 21st Century Specialised Medical University in the Nigerian Context: Are the Challenges Surmountable?” at the Federal University of Health Sciences, Ila Orangun, Osun State.

The former minister of Solid Minerals Development said Nigeria was losing the benefits of its investment in medical education as trained professionals continued to leave for countries offering better salaries, working conditions, career opportunities and stability.

He cited the experience of Ekiti State University, saying more than half of the 50 pioneer medical graduates employed by his administration in 2019 had left the country in search of better opportunities.

According to him, the migration of health professionals is affecting not only the number of available doctors but also the country’s capacity to train future specialists.

“I have seen this in real life. More than half of the 50 pioneer medical graduates of EKSU that we offered employment in 2019 have left the country in search of greener pastures,” he said.

Fayemi said the reasons for the migration included better remuneration, improved working conditions, clearer career prospects and wider opportunities abroad.

He argued that it was unfair for Nigeria to bear the cost of training medical professionals, often through subsidised or tuition-free public university education, while wealthier countries benefited from their services.

He, however, cautioned against measures that would prevent medical graduates from leaving the country, noting that freedom of movement was constitutionally guaranteed.

“A country that can only keep its health workers by compulsion will hold them without ever keeping them,” he said.

Fayemi advocated a combination of improved domestic conditions, ethical international recruitment arrangements and structured partnerships between countries that train health professionals and those that employ them.

He said Nigeria should demand that destination countries contribute towards the cost of training replacement health workers, adding that the proposal should feature prominently in bilateral negotiations.

He recalled that Nigeria had advocated this position at the Africa Health Workforce Investment Forum in Accra in May 2026, arguing that countries recruiting health workers should invest in training professionals in the countries supplying them.

The former governor identified competitive remuneration, functional healthcare facilities, clear career progression and targeted incentives for doctors serving in underserved communities as measures needed to improve local retention.