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Tag: Greener Pastures

  • Nigerians have no business seeking greener pastures overseas – Tinubu

    Nigerians have no business seeking greener pastures overseas – Tinubu

    Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, said in Enugu on Wednesday that Nigeria is so blessed that her citizens needed not to seek greener pastures elsewhere.

    Tinubu made the declaration while addressing a campaign rally and he said there is no country like Nigeria in Africa, adding that he should be supported to renew and to rebuild the country.

    He noted that some Nigerians who ran overseas for greener pastures ended up facing hardships.

    “Those who are running overseas are suffering. We have been there. Anybody who tells you that you cannot do something, pray you can do it,’’ he said.

    According to the APC presidential flag bearer, Lagos as a state is better than many countries in the Western world.

    He stressed that if Igbos should collaborate with his expected government, he would make the geopolitical zone a manufacturing hub.

    Speaking particularly about Enugu, Tinubu said he would make Enugu to become an industrial hub greater than what it is today.

    He described his campaign organisation as a moving train that was prepared to win election saying that any attempt to stand before the moving train would end in fiasco.

    “You cannot block the way of success. It is only the ignorant that will stand on the way of victory.

    “We are not looking for 25 per cent votes. We are working assiduously until Bola Ahmed Tinubu becomes the president of Nigeria,’’ he stressed.

    Tinubu urged Enugu State people and Igbos in general to vote for him so that they would partake in sharing of major national cake.

    “It is only when you invest that you can harvest. It is only when you vote for me that you will share from the national cake,’’ he declared.

    Mr Uche Nnaji, APC’s governorship candidate in Enugu State, Gov. Hope Uzodimma of Imo and Gov. Umahi of Ebonyi also addressed the rally simultaneously.

    They differed on the percentage of votes that Tinubu would poll in the Southeast, however.

    While Nnaji opted for 30 per cent of the votes, Uzodimma said he expected a landslide while Umahi opted for 90 per cent of votes from the geopolitical zone.

    “We have to vote for APC so that we will not lose. We are not looking at 60 per cent or 80 per cent, but 100 per cent of the votes,’’ Umahi said.

  • NMA decries depleting manpower in health sector

    NMA decries depleting manpower in health sector

    The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) said that the rate at which doctors were migrating for greener pastures implied a serious manpower crisis in the health sector.

    The doctors raised the alarm at the opening ceremony of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Anambra Chapter’s Physicians’ Week and Scientific Conference held in Nnewi.

    The theme of the Week is “Nigeria’s Healthcare Delivery System And The 2023 Democratic Transition: A Time To Change The Narrative”.

    Dr Jide Onyekwelu, the Secretary General of NMA, who delivered the lecture, said the burden of brain drain on the country was huge as it was expensive to train a medical doctor.

    Onyekwelu said while the UN standard recommended an average of one doctor to 500 patients, the ratio had dropped to about 1:5000 due to the declining number of doctors in the country.

    He called on the Nigerian government to find out what made practising outside the country more attractive to Nigerian doctors.

    “Brain drain has devastated our medical sector. Nigerian doctors are well trained, that is why they are well sought after elsewhere but our government does not appreciate the quality of our doctors, so they leave to other countries.

    “But they still travel to those countries where they are to see them, the same people they refused to make comfortable here,” he said

    Mr Peter Obi, candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 presidential election, described continued migration of Nigerian trained medical doctors to other countries as unacceptable.

    Obi was represented by Prof. Chinyere Okunna, the Commissioner of Economic Planning/Budget, Office of MDGs and Development Partners during his administration as Governor of Anambra.

    He said it took a high sense of patriotism for any doctor to still practise in Nigeria in the face of the challenges bedeviling the sector.

    According to Obi, any doctor still in Nigeria and working is displaying great patriotism.

    “This is because the environment is unfriendly, equipment are not there, payment is not attractive and there is insecurity of doctors.

    “Sadly, doctors, especially young ones, are leaving the country in their numbers,” he said.

    Obi said during his administration in Anambra, there were challenges in the health sector, including a period of industrial action by doctors, the problems were amicably resolved and the sector was in its optimal functional state.

    He said industrial action was a legitimate instrument of bargaining but what mattered was how the parties settled the differences and how the system came out of it.

    He said his government collaborated effectively with the mission to build a virile health sector, including building the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital, Awka from scratch.

    “I am happy with the theme you have chosen for this Year’s Week celebration because the time to act is now, if you have good governance here, the health sector won’t be as poor as it is now.

    “Strikes and picketing are legitimate ways workers can express their grievances or draw attention to areas of making the system get better, I don’t blame anybody for embarking on a strike.

    Dr Jane Ezeonu, chairman of NMA in Anambra, said the Week was organised in conjunction with Nnewi Branch to draw the attention of government to the dwindling medical human resource challenges and its impact on the sector in Nigeria.

    Ezeonu said the NMA would deliver free medical services to 2,000 patients during the physicians’ week and hold its maiden zonal sports competition among the five zones in the state.

    The award of Physician of the Year was presented to Dr Chukwudi Ihekweaba, a staff member of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital by Prof. Gerald Uduigwe, Provost, Nnamdi Azikiwe University Medical College.

  • Medical doctors, other health workers who train in Nigeria must serve for nine years before seeking greener pastures elsewhere – FG

    Medical doctors, other health workers who train in Nigeria must serve for nine years before seeking greener pastures elsewhere – FG

    The Federal Government has frowned at some medical doctors who flee the country after graduating from medical school without giving back in service to the country (Nigeria) they trained ‘for free’ at public expense.

    The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige who disclosed this at the 2022 Budget Defence of his Ministry at the House of Representatives on Wednesday in Abuja therefore recommended bonding of medical and other health workers so they can serve the country before leaving for anywhere.

    “Medical education in Nigeria is almost free. Where else in the world is it free? The Presidential Committee on Health should come with a proposal for bonding doctors, nurses, medical laboratory scientists and other health workers, so that they don’t just carry their bags and walk out of their country at will when they were trained at no cost.

    “In London, it is 45,000 pounds a session for medical education in cheap in universities. If you go to Edinburgh or Oxford, you pay $80,000. If you go to USA you pay $45,000 but if you go to the Ivy leagues, you pay $90,000 for only tuition, excluding lodging. You do it for six years. So, people in America take loans.

    “We can make provisions for loans and you pay back. If government will train you for free, we should bond you. You serve the country for nine years before you go anywhere,” the Minister said in a statement issued by Deputy Director, Press and Public Relations of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Charles Akpan.

    Meanwhile, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) has given a waiver for employment in health, defence and paramilitary to ensure that those who leave for greener pastures were replaced.

    Ngige explained that the waiver was granted by the government despite an embargo on recruitment into public service.

    The Minister said to address the incessant labour crises in the county, the government would introduce mandatory training for newly elected labour leaders at the National Institute of Labour Studies (NILS).

    He said the proposed training will equip the labour leaders with the knowledge of Labour laws and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions to curb the incessant industrial disputes in the country.

    Ngige also revealed that his Ministry has made provision for the establishment of Rapid Response Labour Desk Offices across the 36 States of the Federation to help nip some of these industrial crises in the bud.

  • Stringent Visa rules: Nigerians snub US, seek ‘greener pastures’ elsewhere

    Stringent Visa rules: Nigerians snub US, seek ‘greener pastures’ elsewhere

    Data from the US travel and tourism office shows a 21 per cent drop in the number of Nigerians travelling to the country, the largest global drop-off in visitors to the US.

    As of 2019 October, 34,000 fewer Nigerians travelled to the US compared to the previous year. After a sustained period of growth between 2011 and 2015, the number of Nigerian visitors to the US started to plateau in 2016 until the big drop-off last year.

    The dip in Nigerian visitors to the US followed a string of visa clampdown measures by the Trump administration.

    After indefinitely suspending its visa interview waiver for Nigerian applicants (the waiver allowed frequent travellers renew their visa without going through in-person interviews each time), the Trump administration also raised visa application fees for Nigerians by including additional “reciprocity fees” ranging from $80 to $303 depending on the class of visa. And even though the Nigerian government immediately slashed visa application fees for American applicants in a bid to get the US to reverse its price increase, the reciprocity fees remain in place.

    The measures followed reports that the Trump administration was looking to impose visa restrictions on countries whose citizens have a track record of overstaying beyond the validity of their short-term US visas. As it turns out, Nigerians were the highest ranked African country for US visa overstays in 2018.

    Even though official data confirms the effects of the measures, there were already warning signs the administration’s policies were having an adverse impact on potential travellers. The policies also spawned fear-fuelled rumours among locals as well: mid-last year, the United States embassy in Nigeria was forced to deny a widespread rumour that it had placed a ban on issuing student visas to Nigerians.

    Despite the Trump administration’s policies, the US remains a popular destination for Nigerian students seeking foreign degrees as the economic impact of spending by Nigerian students studying in the United States reached $514 million over the past academic year.

    The second largest drop was for visitors from Venezuela (17.7%). The South American country is in the midst of an economic and political crisis which has seen more than four million people flee the country and the US is restricting entry to Venezuelan migrants.

    Argentina followed with 15.6 per cent drop and Sweden, 11.1 per cent.