No fewer than 20,966 Nigerian health workers relocated abroad within one year, official figures obtained by Saturday PUNCH have revealed.
The mass exodus includes 3,919 doctors, 7,487 nurses and midwives, 6,861 medical laboratory professionals, 702 pharmacists, 658 physiotherapists and hundreds of other specialists, according to the State of Health of the Nation Report 2025.
The growing migration came under the spotlight following the revelation that a Senior Consultant Neurosurgeon at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Dr Salamat Aliu-Ibrahim, had relocated to the United States.
Aliu-Ibrahim, a foremost neurosurgeon, now works as Medical Director, Paediatrics, Freeman Children’s Clinic, a facility under Freeman Health System in Joplin, Missouri.
This is as data obtained by Saturday PUNCH from the United Kingdom’s General Medical Council showed that 4,691 Nigerian-trained doctors joined the UK medical register between May 2023 and April 2026.
