- Pate said the successful medical workers are considering returning home if the world class and enabling infrastructure is provided.
The Federal Government says Nigerian doctors, nurses and other health workers overseas who have been exceptional in their endeavours and have done well for themselves are opened to the possibility of a homecoming.
The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Ali Pate, who made the disclosure said such return to the fatherland would be spurred by conducive working environment.
Speaking during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, Pate said the successful medical workers are considering returning home if the world class and enabling infrastructure is providedm
“Some that have been successful are also begin to think of how to come back if the enabling infrastructure is provided,” Pate said
The health minister said there are many health workers who chose to remain in Nigeria to serve the country despite the opportunity to move abroad where they are guaranteed better pay and welfare package.
“There are also thousands who are here that despite the opportunity to travel abroad, they are not travelling abroad and we do appreciate them,” he stated, adding that some Nigerians health professionals simply “go to get trainings abroad with the expectation that they will come back better skilled and contribute at home”.
Pate, who spoke on the migration trend known as Japa, which has seen the exodus of thousands of young health workers in the last few years, said the government is working assidously to make the industry conducive for health professionals to stay at home and practice.
Pate said the ‘Japa’ trend is not peculiar to Nigeria as it is a global phenomenon.
“The lifeblood of the health sector is the human resource. That is the most important ingredient, not the hospitals, though they are very important complements,” he said. “There are about 300,000 health professionals working in Nigeria today, of all cadres; doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists, laboratory scientists.”