Omoragbon tasks National Assembly on laws banning government officials from medical tourism, sponsoring their children abroad for studies.
By Cyriakus Nnaji
Pastor Peters Osawaru Omoragbon, the Executive President Nurses Across the Borders International, President Diaspora Nurses Association of Nigeria and Director, International Liaison Nigeria Nurses Charitable Association, UK, has recommended that the National Assembly should enact a law banning any government official from going abroad for Medical purposes and also preventing them from sponsoring their children abroad for studies.
Pastor Peters Omoragbon who is also a Permanent UN Representative for Nurses Across the Borders and First Nigerian Designated Contact Person to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change made the disclosure while answering questions on a Live TV programme Lagos Talk 91.3 on Thursday, April 14, 2023.
Omoragbon stressed “If that is in place, they will be serious in fixing our medical facilities than going abroad for treatment. When Nelson Mandela was dying, he was not flown abroad for treatment, he was treated in South Africa. But the reverse is the case in Nigeria.”
Omoragbon also knocked both chambers of the National Assembly over their attempt to stop health professionals from seeking greener pastures abroad until after five years of their training.
The medical expert was speaking on the implication of placing Nigeria on the Red List by United Kingdom.
Omoragbon took a swipe at the lawmakers whom he reprimanded for obviously not doing due diligence and research work before drafting the bill, stressing that the government lacks justification to restrict freshly trained health workers from leaving the country because they did not train the health workers, adding that the bill in spite of its good intentions is ill timed.
“Without being disrespectful or without being immodest, I will say that the bill, as far as, I am concerned is wrongly timed, it is a good bill to try to moderate the migration of our healthcare practitioners outside of Nigeria in view of the dearth of the practitioners themselves to meet our demands.”
Omoragbon also argued that the lawmakers lack the power to restrict personal liberty “The other negative aspect of the bill is there is no way you can regulate or restrict personal liberty, it is one thing to say all Nigerian doctors and nurses should not go out, you can only make such rule if you are the one who trained them, pay for their training and at the end of the day it is imperative for you to serve me, we will agree for seven years or five years, if after your training you are going to serve me. For instance, I was trained at Aro as a Psychiatric Nurse by the Management of the Psychiatric Hospital and I was placed on level 4, as a student nurse in 1982, so every month I would be paid by the Psychiatric Hospital in Yaba for the three years I was training at Aro. When I came back, I was bonded for three years, I could not leave Yaba until I worked for three years; that was an agreement that was voluntarily entered.”
He informed that medical practitioners in Nigeria pay for their trainings and not the government, hence government cannot stop them from migrating to other countries through legislation. “Today, every nurse, every doctor, every pharmacist, they pay for their training, their parents pay for them. Now for a government to come out and put up a bill and say yes, once you have finished your training, you must not leave Nigeria, it is not done.
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“Even the WHO code of practice, is very clear. That code of practice is only applicable to governments, that means international governments cannot officially go to any country to recruit like they did years back, but it does not, it is very clear, it does not restrict the individual liberty of any nurse or doctor who wants on their own seek employment outside Nigeria. So you see that even the bill, the intent cannot be applicable, it can’t be promoted. One, you don’t have control over these people, you didn’t train them, so you can’t restrict their migration.”
Omoragbon queried the lawmakers for not carrying enough research before coming up with the bill “But the question I have for the Honourable members of Representatives, and Distinguished Senators, one, before initiating the bill, did they take time to carry out a research on reasons Nigerian nurses, and doctors and pharmacists are leaving the country, did they take time to find out, that is one. Two, in both chambers the standing committees on health of both chambers and even at the state chambers, because we have state assemblies, how many of these standing committees have taken time to go round the states, and even the federal government hospitals to ascertain their state and standard, to see the equipment that are there, are they working, how many nurses do they have?, Did they do that? Number three, to what extent did this chambers interact with Diaspora professional associations to engage them on emerging practices in these countries because we have the best doctors, the best nurses, the best scientists who are outside Nigeria, and these Nigerian professionals belong to various professional groups. You will recall I am the Director for International Liaison for Nigerian Nurses Charitable Association in Uk, so how many times have these people interacted with diaspora associations, they did not, but they come to these places for holidays or whatever, but they have not come for an official trip to discuss with these groups to come up with ideas on best practices and we can replicate them in Nigeria.
“The other question I have for the lawmakers is, are these lawmakers conversant with the universally accepted and approved ratio of health professionals to the patients as prescribed by WHO, are they aware? If they are aware, if they have taken time to answer these questions, they would have known that, yes, Nigerians are going out because they don’t have what they needed to work with, if they have taken time to answer these questions, they should have known as the second arm of government they would have impressed it on the Executive branch, to say, look, this and this, they come up with bills that can promote, project and improve our healthcare delivery services, that should be their target, they can take up the executive, if the executive refuses to play ball, they know what to do to make sure the executive complies, they can even refuse to approve the budget of the executive, but I don’t know whether there is a conspiracy, between these various arms, they don’t care, if they care so much about the health of the citizens, the nature of our healthcare delivery services, they won’t be paying lip service to it,” Omoragbon fumed.
He further made it clear that the government is not subsidizing training of the health professionals in Nigeria. “I told you as at 1982 when I went for my training, I said, Yaba Psychiatric Hospital sponsored my training, I was placed on level 4 in those days, after some years, the government stopped sponsorship of nurses. Now I don’t know what you mean by subsidy, my twin brother’s daughter is studying Nursing, do you know that today, she attends a private university because our government universities are regularly on strike in Nigeria, and the tuition fee in this university for nurses is about N1million every session? Minus the fee for hostel and other expenses. Right now we are providing fund for this, and now government is saying they are subsidizing, I do not understand the definition of subsidy. The federal and state universities also pay fees.
“There is no school of nursing in Nigeria that doesn’t pay. The reason I can tell you this is, apart from training and practising in Nigeria before relocating abroad, I interact with Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria, colleagues still in service. In fact I am currently in Abuja, I had a meeting with the Registrar two days ago. I interact with the National Association of Nigerian Nurses, which is the national body of nurses, we interact. Then I have colleagues, I know what is happening. So School of Nursing are not free, they pay their school fees, you can say the school fees may not be as high as what is obtainable in private institutions. If the government is serious and they want the nurses to remain, the doctors to remain, let them put them on salary; they don’t even enjoy bursary. I don’t understand what they mean by Subsidy. It is either you pay them bursary every session or on monthly basis. In UK, to train as a nurse, when I got there I still went back to school. There are two assistance government gives. As a citizen who gets admission to study Nursing, the first one is about 10,000 pounds per annum tuition fees. Government pays it, you now have what is called Maintenance Allowance, given to you as loan, you are given 10 to 15000pounds a year, the government assess your household income to determine what you get aa Maintenance loan and all that, you can get as much as 12 to 15000 pound a year. Even at that they do not tie you down because they pay your tuition fee, or you must work for us. The only time you pay back is when you start working and your annual income is more than 21,000 pounds. You start paying monthly less than 6% of your Maintenance loan. You don’t pay back the tuition.
“There is what is called National Insurance, the national insurance records what you earn, the HMRC–Her Royal Majesty Revenue and Customs is the body responsible for tax and all that, you now start paying back the maintenance loan, it is automatic, the government will start taking from what you are earning.
