Official data shows that over 20,966 Nigerian health personnel left the country in one year alone.
The State of Health of the Nation Report 2025 states the mass flight involves 3,919 doctors, 7,487 nurses and midwives, 6,861 medical laboratory personnel, 702 chemists, 658 physiotherapists and hundreds of other specialists.
Saturday PUNCH says that the rising tide of migration has come under the focus following the disclosure that a Senior Consultant Neurosurgeon at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Dr Salamat Aliu-Ibrahim, has moved to the United States.
Aliu-Ibrahim is a leading neurosurgeon who currently serves as the Medical Director, Paediatrics, at the Freeman Children’s Clinic, part of the Freeman Health System in Joplin, Missouri.
This is despite statistics received by our correspondent from the General Medical Council of the United Kingdom showing that 4,691 Nigerian-trained doctors joined the UK medical register between May 2023 and April 2026.
The GMC registration shows that there are 15,896 doctors who trained in Nigeria and are licensed to work in the UK – 9,664 men and 6,232 women.
But President Bola Tinubu yesterday urged to Nigerian diaspora medical professionals to bring more Nigerians home from abroad to help improve the country, saying there is no place like home.
20,966 Nigerian-trained health personnel left to emigrate
An examination of the State of Health of the Nation Report revealed that only 60,551 of the 95,456 registered doctors in the country now possess active practising licences, which is a meagre 63 per cent, and only 51 per cent of the licensed doctors are actively engaged in the health system in Nigeria.
The nursing and midwifery workforce, the largest health profession in Nigeria, has also been badly affected with the greatest levels of migration of all the health professions.
There are 267,951 registered nurses and midwives in Nigeria, with 73,130 nurses, 21,031 midwives and 173,790 nurses with post-basic certification. However, only 113,123 are currently holding active practising licences, translating to an effective licensing ratio of 42 per cent.
About 78 per cent of those licensed are still in employment in the country.
The report says 658 physiotherapists have migrated leaving only 852 of the country’s 8,642 registered physiotherapists with active practice licenses.
Likewise, 21 occupational therapists have migrated, with only 11 active licences remaining from 176 registered professionals.
There are 257 occupational therapist assistants registered but only 51 practice licences are held at present.
The survey said that 431 optometrists have migrated abroad.
There are 6,975 registered optometrists, of which 2,156 hold practising licences and 66 per cent are domestically employed.
Out of the 2,976 registered opticians, only 307 are currently on practice licence and 18 have relocated.
Popular destinations: UK, US, Canada, Saudi Arabia
Our correspondent found that the United Kingdom is still the most popular destination for Nigerian health workers, especially doctors and nurses, because it is easier to register professionally, pay is better, there is structured specialist training and ongoing workforce shortages in the National Health Service.
Although foreign recruitment has decreased since 2025, Nigeria remains one of the largest source countries for overseas-trained nurses working in the UK.
Data acquired from the UK GMC registry showed that 7,875 Nigerian-trained doctors were licensed to operate in 2020, compared to 9,976 in 2022.
In 2023, Nigeria’s licensed doctors practicing in the UK increased to 12,198, making Nigeria the third largest supplier of overseas-trained doctors in the UK after India with 38,228 doctors and Pakistan with 27,739.
Figures from the UK’s Nursing and Midwifery Council reveal a dramatic surge in the number of globally educated nurses and midwives on its register in recent years driven in major part by recruitment from countries such as Nigeria, India, Ghana and the Philippines.
The council said the number of Nigerian nurses and midwives in the UK had gone up to more than 16,000.
Outside the UK, the US and Canada are increasingly popular destinations.
In 2020, 3,895 doctors trained in Nigeria were licensed to practise medicine in the U.S.
Australia has also stepped up the recruitment of doctors and nurses trained overseas to fill vacancies in regional and rural health services. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates continue to lure Nigerian healthcare workers with tax-free salaries, subsidised housing and other employment perks.
Medical personnel give reasons why we fled Nigeria
Some Nigerian-trained doctors who moved abroad told our correspondent in a chat that they left the nation due to poor remuneration, unpaid salaries, insecurity, poor infrastructure, restricted career options and unfriendly working circumstances.
Nigerian doctor in United Kingdom, Sadiya Gumi, has alleged institutional inadequacies have continued to drive health workers out.
Gumi, the Chairperson of the Concerned Medics Foundation, said that unless Nigeria tackled the problems in its health sector, the doctor-fleeing would continue. She added that Nigerians accounted for about 80 per cent of those taking qualifying tests to practise medicine in the UK.
Aliu-Ibrahim’s departure was a loss of specific skills for Nigeria, she said.
But Gumi said career reasons may not be the sole reason for Aliu-Ibrahim’s transfer, adding that many doctors were driven by other issues like their children’s education, security and quest for better quality of life.
“She (Aliu-Ibrahim) may have gone there (US) for the sake of her children’s education. Her cause may not be medical at all. “She might just think her life, her family’s life, will be better there and she’s willing to give up her career just to live in a safer place,” she said.
Despite the ongoing flight, Gumi remained optimistic that the Nigerian medical diaspora may still help in restoring the country’s healthcare system.
Even if they do not come back permanently, many Nigerian doctors in the Diaspora are willing to help through structured information transfer, training and short-term medical missions, she said.
Pelumi Adetona, a Nigerian doctor in Canada, said poor welfare, unpaid salary and limited professional progression possibilities drove her and her husband away from Nigeria. She said constructing a life overseas makes coming home more harder.
Before they moved, Adetona said her husband and her were both resident doctors, and her husband was owed five months’ wages while working at a state-owned medical center. “We moved to Canada.
Many Nigerian health professionals who had built professions and families abroad, she said, were reluctant to return, even if things improve back home.
When asked if she would consider returning if the Nigerian health sector improves, she said, “As of today, my answer would be no. “I might consider it later, but I don’t think I’d go back. There’s been too much effort put into settling here.”
“I am a Nigerian-trained doctor based in the United Kingdom and my wife is also a medical doctor. We did not leave Nigeria because of lack of patriotism,” Ebun Kolawole stated.
“The UK has a more structured career progression, better remuneration and a work environment where healthcare professionals are adequately supported to deliver quality care,” he said.
However, Kolawole said he would be happy to return to Nigeria if the government displayed a true commitment to tackling the difficulties facing the health sector.
“I am ready to go home if I can work in an environment where I have the tools to do my job, where doctors are valued and paid what they deserve and where my family can live in safety. It must be more than words. “We need to see visible, long-term improvement in the health-care system and the country as a whole,” he said.
Resident doctors overworked
Dr Shuaibu Ibrahim, National Secretary of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors, said the exodus had “drastically depleted Nigeria’s medical workforce”. The number of resident doctors had fallen from about 20,000 a decade ago to 12,000 across federal, state and private hospitals, he said.
He said over 8,000 resident doctors have left Nigeria in recent years with many more emigrating annually in pursuit of better prospects.
Nigeria has only 2.2 doctors for every 10,000 people, Ibrahim claimed, citing a study by the Federal Ministry of Health, and the ratio was well below what was needed to sustain a functioning healthcare system.
Almost 80 per cent of the country’s medical staff were seriously considering moving overseas, he said.
Ibrahim said that doctors had also been affected by overloading. He said many resident doctors were on call practically every day of the month.
“The situation is quite pathetic. “Doctors are leaving because of low pay, lack of security and lack of equipment to work with. Our members are dying because they are on call everyday of the month. “The workload is killing our members,” he remarked.
He said a top doctor in Nigeria gets about N1.5m monthly whereas his counterpart in countries like Saudi Arabia may make between N10m and N15m.
“The junior doctors are the ones with the heaviest workload, and they are the most eager to emigrate immediately after their housemanship,” he said.
Ibrahim said many physicians would want to stay in Nigeria if salaries, hospital infrastructure and working conditions improved.
He also expressed alarm at the rising insecurity of health professionals, saying physicians were being assaulted by patients and their family in hospitals.
Contacted, the National President of the Nigerian Medical Association, Prof Afekhide Omoti, promised to get back to our correspondent but was yet to do so as at the time of reporting this story.
Tinubu tells health workers ‘nowhere like home’
Meanwhile, President Tinubu yesterday asked Nigerian diaspora medical experts to bring more Nigerians back from abroad.
He made the call while receiving members of Nigerian Diaspora Medical Associations, led by the Director-General of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, at the State House, Abuja.
His journey, from training with Deloitte in Chicago to ultimately devoting himself to public service in Nigeria, was the template he was offering them, he said, drawing on his experience as an accountant who studied and worked in the United States before returning home to build a career.
Tinubu remarked, “I have gone through that journey. I’m home and let me tell you, there is no place like home. “I’ve been to America. “I have taken the best of America in my chosen profession, accounting and finance.
I remember the Standard Oil Building in Chicago and the first week I worked there. But from the time I returned from Mobil to now, it’s been a really good challenge to commit and endure the prospect of turning Nigeria around.
“You all have seen the dangers on the other side of the world. “You’ve been through the tribulation and the trials, and you’ve come back home to feel it and seal it.”
He exhorted those present to make the case to Nigerian medical professionals still outside the country.
“Try to attract my friends who are still there home. “But the best way to show you is for me to commit myself to my agenda, the Renewed Hope, so that the hope of Nigerians of having a better environment, better education, better development and prosperity can be achieved,” he remarked.
The president said the value of the work being done by diaspora doctors who were coming back to contribute was inestimable.
“We are working very hard for your children to see the foundation of this country as belonging to them and the future as belonging to them. “Your coming to help is way out of proportion,” he added.
He reminded them that his administration had taken on the fight against poverty as a central priority and would not abandon it.
“Look at 250 years of American democracy and centuries of British rule and we’re still very young. We’re only infants. What do we have to do? Strong determination and staying focused.”
Neurosurgeon’s move to US draws mixed emotions
The move, similar to the departure of Dr Aliu-Ibrahim to the United States, stirred up varied reactions as some Nigerians lamented the continuous exodus of highly skilled medical experts and cautioned against its ramifications for healthcare service in the country.
“@Women’sDoc in a post on X warned that Nigeria risked losing the specialists needed to provide critical healthcare services. He stressed that the impact of the exodus would become more evident as patients struggled to access life-saving treatment.
“We have lost one of the few people that can offer a service that millions of Nigerians may someday desperately need,” the user posted.
Daniel Popoola, another respondent who is a doctor, said that the removal of Aliu-Ibrahim was a sign that Nigeria’s healthcare system is in a developing crisis.
“For a senior consultant to go back and start residency all over again is like someone with a masters degree going back to Primary Five. “Nigeria’s health care system is in serious trouble, but no one seems to care,” he wrote.
Another X user, @oghenemaro_1, condemned the judgement, saying the woman had enjoyed Nigeria’s subsidised education before going abroad.
This is incredibly selfish on her part, The user commented, “She enjoyed the subsidised education here, then left.
But some social media users defended her decision and said that doctors should not be chastised for seeking better working conditions, higher salary, more security and career chances abroad.
And they called on the government to address the reasons behind the ongoing departure of health care personnel.
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