Charge U.K., U.S., others for Nigerian doctors migrating to their countries — Lagos deputy Gov. Hamzat tells FG

The deputy governor of Lagos State, Obafemi Hamzat, has asked the federal government to charge the United Kingdom and other countries for each 1,000 Nigerian doctors that they welcome as migrants.

Hamzat said this on Sunday, June 4, in Lagos while reacting to the issue of the brain drain of medical experts in Nigeria.

According to him, “Human migration is normal. People would leave, and people would come. But as a country, we can train more doctors.

I am not against the brain drain of medical doctors, but what we need is to create a pipeline to train more doctors instead of complaining that medical personnel are leaving the country.

If we train 5,000 doctors yearly, let us increase the numbers to 15,000, by doing so, the country benefits.”

Hamzat said the government could not stop people from going wherever they wanted to go. According to him, in 2022, 197 Americans threw away their passports and became Singaporeans, so people will continue to move around the world.

“The Nigerian government should rather, look for a way to benefit from the countries our doctors are moving to. For example, if 1,000 doctors go to the United Kingdom, the UK Government must pay us something back in return,” he said.