NMA Points To Insecurity As Main Cause Of Doctors’ Departure From Health Sector

The Nigerian Medical Association NMA  has attributed the incessant mass exodus of medical doctors out of the country to the insecurity that has ravaged the nation.

Kogi State Chairman of NMA, Abubakar Hassan, stated this in Lokoja while speaking to journalists on the ongoing nationwide strike embarked upon by the association.

He noted that medical personnel have become the prime targets for criminal elements in the country despite their service to humanity.

While lamenting that the reoccurrence of the kidnapping of medical doctors has crippled the health services in Kogi state and the nation at large, he stressed that there are many unreported cases of doctors who are being held in captivity by their abductors across the country.

He pointed out that in a particular North Central State, at least two doctors are currently in captivity, one for upward of one year now while the second one happened only recently, saying the story is the same across the entire country.

According to him, the insecurity in the country is one of the reasons responsible for the mass exodus of doctors from Nigeria to other countries.

Hassan, who stated that down tooling was the last option for doctors to press home their demands, blamed the federal government for failing to provide security for its citizens, noting that it has become a serious hindrance to the practice of the medical profession in Nigeria.

In his remark,  the President, the Association of Resident Doctors, Federal Teaching Hospital Lokoja,  Jimoh Umar, said there was full compliance with the warning strike in Kogi state.

He complained that the security of medical doctors has continued to deteriorate in the country, and charged the government to urgently look into their demands.

Recall that on August 26th, 2024, the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) commenced a seven-day warning strike over the abduction of their colleague, Ganiyat Popoola, who has been held captive for eight months.

Popoola, a registrar in the Department of Ophthalmology at the National Eye Centre, Kaduna, was abducted in December 2023 alongside her husband and nephew.