Nigeria’s Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige has said that medical doctors who choose to leave the country, and practice elsewhere are free because the country has a surplus.
Speaking on Channels TV Sunrise Daily as a guest earlier, the minister said even he was taught by foreigners back in secondary school.
His words: “I’m Not Worried, We Have Surplus (Doctors), if we have a surplus, we export. I was taught Biology and Chemistry by Indian teachers in my secondary school days.
“They are surplus in their country. We have a surplus in the medical profession in our country. I can tell you this. It is my area, we have excess. We have enough, more than enough, quote me.”
On whether he doesn’t find anything wrong with doctors’ leaving, Ngige said:
“There is nothing wrong, they go out to sharpen their skills, earn money and send them back home here. Yes, we have foreign exchange earnings from them, not from oil.”
“Those guys go there, they are better trained because of the facilities they have there. Eventually, I know a couple of them who practise abroad but set up medical centres back home. They have CAT scan, MRI scan which even the government hospitals cannot maintain. So, I don’t see any loss.
“Brain drain will only be inimical when for instance neurosurgeons travel and we don’t have neurosurgeons here.”
