The Diaspora Medical Associations (DMA), an umbrella body of Nigerian medical doctors and dentists practising abroad, have petitioned the National Assembly over a bill that would require medical and dental graduates to complete five years of compulsory service in Nigeria before receiving a full licence to practise. The letter, titled “Re: A position statement from diaspora medical associations – Bill seeking to restrict newly‑qualified medical doctors and dentists from leaving Nigeria,” was dated 11 April 2023 and addressed to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila. Copies were also sent to Senate President Ahmad Lawan, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health Dr Ibrahim Oloriegbe, and the Chairman of the House Committee on Health Dr Tanko Sununu. The letter was signed by the presidents of several diaspora organisations: Dr Emeka Ugwu (Nigerian Doctors’ Forum, South Africa), Dr Chinyere Anyaogu (Association of Nigerian Physicians in the Americas), Dr Chris Agbo (Medical Association of Nigerians Across Great Britain), Dr Nnamdi Ndubuka (Canadian Association of Nigerian Physicians and Dentists), and Dr Al Amin Dahiru (Nigerian Medical Association‑Germany).
The DMA argued that the Medical and Dental Practitioners Act (Amendment) Bill, sponsored by Ganiyi Johnson and recently passed at second reading in the House of Representatives, is counter‑productive and will not achieve its intended goal of curbing brain drain. In their statement, the DMA acknowledged the serious problems caused by the exodus of Nigerian health professionals, including reduced access to care, lower quality of services, “care‑delivery deserts,” and an inability to implement health and public‑policy effectively due to a shortage of manpower and leadership.
According to the DMA, the primary drivers of brain drain are systemic: a poor care‑delivery framework, insufficient investment in health, and an environment that fails to promote professionalism, growth, job satisfaction, or a high‑reliability culture. Additional factors include inadequate welfare packages, high insecurity, limited employment and subspecialty‑training opportunities, and broader sociopolitical and economic instability—issues largely outside the health sector and beyond individual control. The associations cited the Abuja Declaration, noting that good governance and sustained investment could improve security, education, and compensation, thereby addressing many of these concerns.
The DMA warned that focusing on a single aspect of the problem without a holistic, sustainable approach would be ineffective. Young professionals leave Nigeria in search of better prospects, frustrated by decades of governance failures that have left the health system in serious neglect, with limited training and career development opportunities, rampant insecurity, and a lack of equity and justice for the average citizen. The diaspora organisations expressed their willingness to help craft effective solutions and to participate in fostering such changes.
Finally, the doctors called on the Speaker to adopt a purposeful, systemic solution rather than a “quick‑fix” that could worsen the situation. They pledged to support positive reforms and the growth of the health sector to halt and reverse the brain drain.
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