SIMONKOLAWOLELIVE! simon.kolawole@thisdaylive.com, sms: 0805 500 1961
If they explain Nigeria to you and you understand, then you are one in a billion. I herein provide yet another instance. It is estimated that the country, with a population of 220 million, has just about 55,000 doctors. That comes to one doctor per 4,400 Nigerians. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends 1/1,000. For a country with such a severe shortage of doctors, you would expect all hands to be on deck to address the national emergency. You would expect some extraordinary measures. One would be to create incentives to slow down or halt the “japa” syndrome that is ravaging the sector. Another would be to accelerate the training of more doctors to fill the huge void.
But Nigeria is peculiar. That is why we are Nigeria. We are making it harder to produce more medical doctors. We have a policy that strictly limits the number of medical students that can be trained per year. You would think that our pathetic situation would make us sit down and think up intelligent solutions. You would expect that we should be aiming to ramp up the numbers by improving the capacity of our medical schools in terms of faculties and facilities. What does it take to improve facilities? Is it not brick and mortar? Is it not equipment? Will this bankrupt Nigeria? Will it cost us more than it does to sponsor pilgrims or buy kola nuts and Tom Tom candy for government houses?
