Okowa said Nigeria has capacity to export medical officers if available potentials are adequately harnessed and planned
By Kehinde Okeowo
The Delta State governor, Ifeanyi Okowa has said that Nigeria should be contemplating training more doctors and nurses rather than making laws to restrict them from leaving the country.
The Peoples Democratic Party’s vice presidential candidate in the February 25th presidential election, also argued that the country has the capacity to export medical officers to needy nations if available potentials are adequately harnessed and planned.
Okowa made this known recently while inaugurating the Collegiate System in the State’s Schools of Nursing, Agbor, Ika South Local Government Area of the state.
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According to him, Nigeria can replace medical practitioners emigrating out of the country from the pool trained, while others could be exported to needy nations.
He said: “Nigeria can leverage the massive demand for medical professionals trained in the country by signing bilateral agreements with foreign nations to train and export more of the professionals to those countries.
“I think that as a nation, if we know where our strength lies, we can do things that can enable us to improve on where our strength lies.
“There is nothing wrong if there is a planned programme by Nigeria to train many more nurses than we need, and we enter into a bilateral relationship with other countries to export some of our nurses, midwives and doctors.
“I am not one of those that will come out to say that we are trying to make laws to stop or restrict the movement of medical personnel out of the country,”
He frowned at unethical practices, where medical professionals don’t show empathy to their patients, urging them to ensure they adhere to the ethics of their professions.
Okowo also admitted that Nigeria is currently challenged by a lack of adequate nurses, midwives and doctors and pointed out that the situation has begun to affect the quality of healthcare delivery in the country.