The House of Representatives on Thursday passed the Medical and Dental Practitioners Act (Amendment) Bill, 2022 for a second reading. If the bill is passed and assented to by President Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) before he leaves office on May 29, 2023, graduates in medical and dental fields will be required to render five years of compulsory service in Nigeria before being granted a full licence. The bill, titled “A Bill for an Act to Amend the Medical and Dental Practitioners Act, Cap. M379, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 to Mandate Any Nigeria‑Trained Medical or Dental Practitioner to Practise in Nigeria for a Minimum of Five Years Before Granted a Full Licence by the Council in Order to Make Quality Health Services Available to Nigeria; and for Related Matters,” is intended to address several pressing issues.
**1. Brain drain** – The sponsor of the motion, Ganiyu Johnson (APC/Lagos), explained that the legislation aims to curb the mass exodus of medical professionals. After the peak of the COVID‑19 pandemic, Nigeria experienced a significant migration of its health workers to developed countries, a phenomenon now dubbed the “Japa Syndrome.” A study shows Nigeria has the third‑highest number of foreign doctors in the United Kingdom after India and Pakistan. Moreover, a 2023 WHO health‑workforce report identified Nigeria and 36 other African nations as facing the most acute health‑workforce challenges related to Universal Health Coverage. According to the President of the Nigerian Medical Association, Uche Rowland, at least 5,600 doctors have migrated to the UK in the past eight years.
**2. Quality healthcare in Nigeria** – The World Health Organization recommends a mix of 23 doctors, nurses and midwives per 10,000 people to deliver essential health services. Johnson noted that Nigeria currently has only 24,000 licensed medical doctors, representing less than 10 % of the required number. He argued that the bill is “in order to make quality health services available to Nigerians considering the growing population and the current emigration rate of Nigeria‑trained medical and dental practitioners abroad.” In some southern states, one doctor now serves 30,000 patients, while in the north the ratio is one doctor to 45,000 patients.
**3. Subsidised medical and dental education** – Lawmakers contend that, because the government subsidises medical and dental education for Nigerian students, graduates should give back to the country after training. Johnson highlighted the stark contrast in tuition costs: in the UK, medical tuition ranges from £35,750 to £66,500 per year; in the US, the average cost is $82,000–$104,000; and in Canada, it ranges from CAD 52,000 to CAD 169,000. In Nigeria, public‑institution tuition for medicine is only N40,000 to N150,000. He stressed that despite this subsidy, many Nigerian doctors and dentists still emigrate to Europe, North America and the Middle East—destinations that most Nigerians cannot afford for medical training.
**4. Overstretch of the medical workforce** – The recent wave of doctors relocating to the UK threatens to worsen the doctor‑to‑patient ratio, further overstretching an already limited workforce and potentially prompting more doctors to seek better working conditions abroad. Johnson observed that foreign embassies in Nigeria, particularly those of the UK, the US and Saudi Arabia, receive 20 to 25 verification requests weekly from Nigerian doctors wishing to migrate, amounting to about 1,196 applications per year. Consequently, the Nigerian public, whose resources fund medical and dental education, continues to suffer from inadequate health services—a situation Johnson described as a “clear cheat on the Nigerian people.”
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