The Pain of Brain Drain
One of the challenges facing Nigeria currently is the acute lack of enough well trained medical personnel to take care of the health of her citizens. This is in addition to the economic realities that are stifling the people’s living condition.
Medical doctors, nurses, midwives, lawyers, pilots, engineers, university lecturers and other professionals are leaving Nigeria in droves to other parts of the world in search of better condition of living, mainly because of the precarious situation in the country as well as other factors including abuse on the rights of citizens.
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Those who feel that they cannot wait around for Nigeria to get better, leave the country if they can. Most times these people possess higher potential of contributing positively to the economy and this has led to the retrogression of many sectors of the economy which makes the issue of brain drain a matter that requires immediate attention and redress.
Apart from the factors listed above, there are many other reasons why citizens leave their country for others, mostly reluctantly. The reasons can be identified as both internal and external factors.
The internal factors leading to brain drain include mass unemployment, poor salaries, weak educational systems, poverty, religious, communal and political crises.
External factors from the developing countries include higher paying jobs, superior economic outlook, and relatively stable political environment as well as modernized educational system which lure people into their country.
The prevalence of brain drain in Nigeria has led to some negative repercussions which have affected the economy. Some of these effects include loss of tax revenue, shortage of important skilled workers, lose of confidence in the economy, which will cause persons to desire to leave rather than stay.
Various sectors of the economy suffer from brain drain; some more than others like the education and health sectors. Take Nigeria’s health sector for example, with about 72,000 doctors registered with the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN), more than half practice medicine outside the country. That leaves a population of about 180 million people with 35,000 doctors. And that comes to around one doctor per 5,000 people, far less than the global recommendation of one doctor per 600 people.
The increasing fear and loss of faith in the economy call for extra efforts being made by the government to eradicate the issue of human capital flight in Nigeria. The government should create better incentives for the Nigerian working class. As a mixed economy, Nigerians should be encouraged to startup businesses of their own especially businesses that attend to the pressing needs of the citizens.
