The federal government has been accused by the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) of trying to force its members into extreme poverty and slavery by making them work more than 72 hours without receiving the appropriate compensation.
At a news conference in Uyo, Dr Aniekan Peter, the chairman of the NMA’s Akwa Ibom State chapter, expressed concern that Nigeria pays the lowest salaries to physicians worldwide, pointing out that Nigerian physicians now flee to Ghana, Togo, Liberia, and even Cameroon to practise where they are well-cared for.
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He said, “Nigeria pays one of the worst, if not the worst salary to doctors and that’s why you see Nigerian doctors running to Ghana, Togo, Liberia, Cameroon for survival. Is it not a shame that in Nigeria doctors are resigning to work in Ghana, Togo, Benin, Republic? Not even USA, UK?
“So gradually the federal government has pushed doctors into absolute poverty. We have been trying to engage the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria led by our president, Bola Tinubu, through our National officers’ Committee NOC, unfortunately, a lot of the things have always been promissory.”
The NMA chairman bemoaned the rate of brain drain in the health sector, stating that only 55,000 of Nigeria’s 85,000 registered medical practitioners remain. He urged the federal government to increase the number of medical professionals, enhance their benefit package, and outfit medical facilities to tackle the problem.
He also expressed concerned that President Tinubu had chosen to send Nigerian doctors to St. Lucia, where they would receive N3 million from the government, while doctors at home would only receive a pitiful N300,000. This was despite the Federal Government’s incapacity to provide for the welfare needs of its physicians.
“As Nigerian doctors we are saying that what is good for the goose is good for the gander,” he stressed.
He listed the demands to include: ”Improvement of the living minimum wage with at least 300%pay rise for all medical and dental practitioners, universal applicability of all salary adjustments and allowances for medical and dental practitioners in state MDAs, private sector and the universities and immediate withdrawal of the circular on review of allowances for medical dental officers in the Federal Public Service dated 27 June 2025.
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Other demands according to the chairman include: “Immediate correction of consequential adjustments in line with the agreements of 2001,2009, and 2014 CBAs, immediate correction of the relativity agreement between CONMESS and CONHESS and immediate settlement of all outstanding areas of 25-35%CONMESS,clinical duty and accruement allowances owed to medical and dental practitioners”.
Following an emergency extraordinary general meeting in Uyo, Peter read a communiqué signed by the chapter secretary, Dr. Edesiri Ighorodje. In it, he alluded to the 21-day ultimatum that the association’s National Officer Committee had already issued in response to a circular from the National Salaries and Wages Commission.
He stated that in addition to the 19 demands that the NOC submitted to the federal government, the state association had rejected the circular on the review of allowances for medical and dental officers and had made certain changes.
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The NMA chairman expressed concern that the health sector will continue to suffer if their requests are not fulfilled because many health officers are willing to leave Nigeria in search of better opportunities abroad.
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