Stop treating doctors like civil servants, former WMA president tells FG

A former president of the World Medical Association, Dr. Osahon Enabulele, has urged the Federal Government to stop lumping medical professionals into the general civil service structure, warning that the continued neglect of their unique needs is fuelling the mass exodus of doctors from Nigeria.

Enabulele, a former president of the Nigerian Medical Association and Commonwealth Medical Association, said the government’s failure to recognise the distinct roles and challenges of healthcare workers had left many professionals “stranded, demotivated, and unpatriotic”.

Speaking at the National Health Summit 2025, organised virtually by the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors, the ex-WMA president argued that Nigeria’s health workforce had been consistently shortchanged by job evaluations conducted under the standard civil service system, which fails to understand the structure, intensity, and responsibilities of medical work.

“Right now, every health worker is almost like an orphan who does not believe that the country is there for him or her. That’s why they are leaving.

“If you do a job evaluation today, you will find the health workforce completely disadvantaged. The current structure does not understand what we stand for,” he added.

To address this, he called for the immediate establishment of a dedicated Health Service Commission, separate from the traditional civil service, to oversee issues related to working conditions, salaries, training, and career progression for healthcare professionals.

According to him, one of the most urgent policy reforms required is the establishment of a national health service commission.

“Unlike the current practice, where healthcare professionals are absorbed into the core civil service structure that fails to grasp their peculiarities, a commission dedicated to healthcare workers would understand their needs and cater effectively to issues of working conditions, compensation, training, and career progression.

“We need a health commission, just like the NUC in education, that understands the peculiarities of the health sector. It should include all health professionals, but doctors must be placed in a prime position,” he said.

The former NMA president also criticised the government’s lack of investment in the health sector despite the country’s heavy disease burden.

He warned that Nigeria currently needs over 300,000 additional doctors to meet growing health demands, urging authorities to expand the number of medical schools and training institutions.

He noted, “We are just scratching the surface. Nigeria needs between 3,000 to 4,000 medical schools to address the deficit. Mere policy statements won’t cut it. We need real investments.”

He further urged the government to tie healthcare workers’ salaries to inflation and improve workplace infrastructure and access to credit and insurance.

The physician noted that these are basic standards in countries that have successfully retained their workforce.

Referencing the Global Health and Care Worker Compact launched at the World Health Assembly in Geneva, Enabulele challenged African leaders to begin implementing its provisions to secure, motivate, and retain healthcare workers.

According to him, health is a key driver of economic prosperity, yet Nigeria and other African countries have failed to treat the sector as a priority despite bearing over 25 per cent of the global disease burden with less than one per cent of the global health workforce.

He emphasised the importance of linking health workers’ wages to inflation, saying stagnant salaries have discouraged patriotism and productivity.

“You cannot give me XYZ salary today and leave it for another 10 years. Developed countries dynamically appraise and adjust health workers’ pay structures regularly,” he stated.

Enabulele also decried the deplorable state of medical infrastructure in Nigeria, describing many consultation rooms as “unfit for purpose compared to the living room-standard” facilities available abroad.

He called on the government to match policy pronouncements with concrete investments in training, retention, and infrastructure, noting that without such commitments, Nigeria risks total collapse of its healthcare system.