Samuel Oladipupo Essoodee
Concerned Nigerians have taken to Twitter to react to a statement by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, permitting medical doctors to leave Nigeria, to practice outside the country.
Ngige said this on Tuesday while as a guest on Channels TV’s ‘Sunrise Daily’, adding that he was not worried about the surplus state of doctors in the country.
Said he
“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,” Ngige said.
However, the statement has stirred up diverse reactions:
@ PaulliBay “Just hear a MINIstar in Nigeria? This man has lost touch with realities on the ground. This Ngige, in 2003, was taken to Okija shrine to swear an oath of allegiance to Chris Uba. He was later disgraced out of office. Hid your head and mouth in SHAME.
@Thecardinal911 “In a country with less than 80k doctors for a population of over 170million people, that is 2125 people to one doctor and a minister says he has surplus. Wow! Just wow! The WHO prescribes 1 doctor to 1000 people and we’re over 2x that value but our leaders think it’s just fine.”
@Fayotomotyfe “Ha! But who did we offend in this country though? We have enough doctors but their president spent a good part of his term outside Nigeria receiving medical treatment. I don tire. God save us really.
This statement coming from Dr Ngige is actually very misleading. ‘’
@ OhiafiJ ‘’Nigeria has a low ratio of doctor to patient and here is a minister saying it’s okay when we should be trying to improve.
We should do everything to retain our best professional here.’’
@Kingso_Lala “Please Nigerian doctors don’t listen to him. We are the ones that will suffer it. You know they don’t even use our hospitals, that’s what motivates them to make such comments. Please stay for us!’’
