Twenty-five-year-old Nduka Clement (not real name), a final-year student at the University of Lagos College of Medicine, says his chances of practising transplant surgery or orthopedics in Nigeria upon graduation are slim.

Clement, who suffered a delay in his studies due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a strike action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), considers the ongoing month-long strike by resident doctors the last straw that broke the camel’s back.

Speaking with FIJ, he said he had the privilege of working under a consultant at the Manchester Royal Infirmary, England, while undergoing a six-week observership programme in his penultimate study year and the experience was better compared to Nigeria.

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“The rewards of practising medicine in Nigeria are not commensurate with the workload and the unrealistic doctor-patient ratio, plus the welfare of healthcare providers in the country isn’t taken care of by the government,” he said.

“Doctors on the frontline managing COVID-19 patients get N5,000 as hazard allowance. Salaries are being owed. It’s a circus here.”

Similarly, Melvin, a 500-level student of the same school, expressed willingness to practise abroad.

She said, “I don’t think I can fully achieve what I want to achieve here. I don’t think I can fully help those I want to help, even though the original plan, if everything is good, is to practise here.”

“I’m a Nigerian and I want to work for Nigeria, but then it’s impossible or difficult for you to help the people when the government does not want you to help them. Even the basic things that you need, they don’t put them in place.”

“So I would want to practise where I would be appreciated. I mean, even the pay that is not enough compared to what is paid elsewhere, they don’t give it to you.”

FIJ also spoke with a 300-level student of medicine at the University of Ibadan, and she thinks working conditions abroad are better. She said she would rather work in an environment that is “better and more conducive” than Nigeria.

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When asked if she had solid evidence of better working conditions abroad, she said, “No, but it seems the government does not like us; they don’t rate us.”

“Look at what is happening (resident doctors’ strike). They don’t pay them. Some of them have to work under tension. You won’t be able to work effectively.”

Demilade Ajibade, a 400-level medicine student of Olabisi Onabanjo University, said he is in close contact with an alumnus of his institution practising in Canada and he tells him the conditions there are better.

“There is swift attention,” he said.

“The health sector is dying. They have a situation where they have to keep crying and crying before issues are resolved. Even as medical students, it is very hard here.”

“The health system here is in a state of disarray. As students, when we go to the wards, there are limited bed spaces, lack of facilities, people complaining that the care given to them is not adequate. There are personnel on board, but because there are not enough materials to work with, the doctors are nonchalant.”

“Before you can have anything done at the university hospital, they would have to deliberate on it, and it is time-consuming. When you are supposed to get five units of an item, you get one, and then maintenance becomes an issue.”

On August 24, Saudi Arabia conducted a recruitment exercise for Nigerian doctors; hundreds of them participated. At the Abuja centre of the exercise, a doctor, Vivian Okoro, lamented seeing one of her teachers jostling for the same greener pastures she now sought.

On August 2, the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) embarked on an indefinite strike. Apart from the demand for better emoluments, the doctors are agitating for regular payment of salaries and improvement in the working environment, among others.