Nigeria's House of Representatives in its tweet on 6 April, announced that a bill sponsored by Rep Ganiyu Abiodun Johnson to prevent Nigerian-trained medical or dental practitioners from being granted full licences until they have worked for a minimum of five years in the country has passed second reading at the Nigerian House of Representatives https://twitter.com/HouseNGR/status/1643996023885533184?s=20
My First Reaction
At last! It came late since I wrote to recommend that this law be passed for years now but it is still better it is coming this late than never. I support this bill be passed as law and the President must quickly assent to the law for immediate implementation and subsequent domestication by every state of the federation .
Cuba has such a law and it worked for all government-trained doctors as they require official persmission to relocate overseas after being trained by the Cuban government https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-usa-migrants-healthcare-idUSKBN0TK58B20151201
The unregulated exit of Nigerian government-trained doctors here in our country has almost crashed the system yet there are several reports and complaints that they are being enslaved overseas.
https://punchng.com/nigerian-doctors-in-uk-lament-exploitation-slave-labour/
Will The Law Be Effective?
The way the law will be effective is to delay the process from when medical induction oath taking takes place to when you recieve provisional and full permanent medical license to practice as a medical doctor.
All travels by those set of doctors covered by the law will be required to get official permission from the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) for travel within that period and the list to be shared with the Legislature and Immigration service on a periodic basis.
The law will make defaulters who flout the 5-year moratorium liable to conviction if they leave Nigeria to permanently reside and transfer their tax-expense acquired skillset to a foreign country before 5 years.
Anyone still doubting if this law will work should ask any professional this rhethorical question : You do not want a criminal record as a professional or would you want to be prosecuted?
The ship has set sail and the rest of the loose ends will be sorted out even though I suggest that this law be accelerated.
What Are Nigerians Saying?
There are two courts in the land, the more powerful one is the court of public opinion in the scheme of sociological perspectives.
Those who ignore the power of public opinion later realised too late.
There are some erstwhile powerful trade unions that underestimated the power of public opinion and today not enjoying the public sympathy.
That is why I am staying on the fundamental and basic question of "Must the taxpayers lose on all sides?" I am not about 'whataboutism'.
Like this problem of young doctors leaving immediately after training which remained unaddressed until now, I believe that one day, the issue of paying huge subsidies on petrol and electricity to only a set of Nigerians while millions of other Nigerians without roads and electricity have no equivalent subsidy yet forced by the system to pickup the social cost and burden of the debt and fiscal capture of state resources for a privileged compatriots will get to this level of national bill too.
Everyone of those with elitist education seem to want to take advantage of the system and when you ask them a basic question on why should a tax payer train you and when you finish your training you immediately take your skill to another country, what I recieve are cocky answers telling me "whatabout" so so so and so in response.
To make it mandatory for young medical doctors to stay back at least 5 years after being trained with tax payers money is not too much to ask from you if you attend government universities where your education was heavily subsidized.
Right Family Values On Decline
Parents who scatter their homes and raise children who grow up to run far away from home are on trial as well. It is not just the young professionals using the japa syndrome as smokescreen.
It is abnormal and dysfunctional for a young man and/or woman to finish school and immediately want to move several thousand kilometres away from his parents and deny those who trained him of his skill. It is against natural justice and these young professionals will lose.
In my opinion, this law asking them to stay will turn out to be a blessing in disguise for them.
I have relatives who finished from overseas universities as far back as around early 1900s to immediately return to the family and community to serve. For example Dr James.C. Omosanya Vaughan https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Churchill_Vaughan who returned home to start his clinic in Lagos around 1919 joined others to form political groups and got elected as the first President of the Lagos Youth Movement which later became Nigeria Youth Movement(NYM) to fight for Nigeria's independence. My paternal grandfather, Sir Lawrence Bamidele Vaughan (fondly called LB) did same. He returned home to join others to build and run the Jebba to Oshogbo train system, headed and managed operations of the regional headquarter of whole Jebba division from Oshogbo in the early 1920s.
This is the story of some families and they may be reading this piece now. I salute you. These families like mine still send their children to study overseas and return home immediately after study to contribute their quota to the nation.
Apart from my family tradition I met, I learnt from my own parents too that family is key in things like this. 75% of my parents' children are outstanding healthcare professionals trained in University of Ibadan(U.I), University of Lagos(UNILAG) , Obafemi Awolowo University(OAU) today and no single one of us ever travel overseas and stay put away from our paremts for long because right from childhood we were told that in our family, your education is for the family, community, Nigeria, global in that order.
We were taught and raised to know that the community and Nigeria should be at the centre of what we do with our education and skill. This same tradition we recieved from our forebears, we have passed on to our children so they can pass on to their children.
Even when the opponents of this bill all run away, I guarantee you that families like our own will stay back and I mean it.
With all sense of modesty and gratitude to God for His mercies and favour,I am humbled to admit that in a top Federal Government healthcare facility here in Southwest Nigeria, it is not a coincidence that the Administrative Head of the whole facility, Head of critical clinical units are my relatives and one is my direct sibling.
That was my personal experience too when I was then at a foremost Lagos state public health facility. When I was posted by HSC to that facility, I was not surprised to meet a first cousin already heading their Obstetrics & Gynaecology as a Senior Consultant.
I and my family do what I preach and recommend in this article, that is what we met our forebears do.
Deciet In Those Opposed To The Bill?
There is some lie we are telling ourselves when we want to institutionalise a system that pushes away our children from home and the parents because you find it convenient to blame and hate Nigeria, an amorphous govt and/or individuals in government when you are actually tearing your families apart. This is an abhorrent behaviour.
You will lose and pay a huge price if you have not already started paying the price in regrets.
The same children you used all your resources to nurture are several kilometres away and when in critical time that you need them you now need to depend on those who stay behind while you wish your child is there for you.
It is very sad that the family and parents are failing big time. If you do not build a solid functional family with your spouse, you can not have a safe sanctuary of loving atmosphere home for your children. Your children will flee from your home and justify it.
Those who are outside the healthcare sector and those who have no alternative to public health yet oppose this move by National Assembly are uninformed or being mischievious when they bring up whataboutism.
You are losing big time!
I am done with you if you still do not see the real cost of how you are hurting yourself, your parents; Nigerian taxpayers and your own community by defending a blank cheque for young doctors to immediately pick their bags after being fed and trained here, abandon their parents and society for any reason at all. It is cheating and they will all lose las las. You can not cheat people and go scot free.
Unless this law is passed, it will be a case of Nigeria loses, these young doctors lose, their parents lose, the taxpayers whose tax was used to train them lose.That will be a preposterous legacy for this current legislature to leave behind.
The making and implementation of this patriotic law should be accelerated!
Sunkanmi Vaughan is an author and Lagos-based Pharmacist.