Kayode Thadius Ijadunola warned yesterday that Nigeria’s worsening health workforce crisis now poses a serious threat to the country’s health security and sustainable development, and he called for sweeping reforms to avert a collapse of the healthcare system. The Professor of Community Medicine at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, delivered the warning at the fifth Oladipo Akinkugbe distinguished lecture of the University of Medical Sciences, Ondo State, titled: ‘Reimagining the Nigerian Healthcare System: Leadership, Research and Innovation for the Future’.
The warning came with a blunt diagnosis of how the system is being hollowed out from both ends. Ijadunola identified the mass migration of healthcare professionals and the retirement of experienced personnel as a double depletion that is weakening healthcare delivery and eroding future leadership capacity in the sector. He described the trend as an existential threat to the country’s health system, and said only bold policy reforms, sustained investment and coordinated action by governments, healthcare institutions, development partners and other stakeholders could reverse the situation.
Who Pays for the Breakdown
Ijadunola said, “The health workforce attrition crisis constitutes an existential threat to health security and institutional resilience. The simultaneous loss of younger professionals through migration and experienced workers through retirement creates a ‘double depletion’ effect, weakening both current service delivery and future leadership capacity.”
That’s the human cost of a system run from above. The people who need care now face thinner services, while the people who might have led the next generation are being pushed out or leaving altogether. The lecture framed the crisis as a matter of national security and development, but the damage lands first on ordinary patients and the workers left behind to keep the doors open.
What They’re Calling Reform
The don urged the federal government to adopt a comprehensive strategy that combines managed migration frameworks, improved remuneration, better working conditions and targeted expansion of the primary healthcare workforce to prevent what he described as a catastrophic deterioration of Nigeria’s health security architecture. He also advocated far-reaching reforms in health financing, human resources management, gender-responsive healthcare, health policy, legislation, research priorities, economic management and constitutional provisions to build a resilient and inclusive healthcare system.
He said, “By addressing the fundamental gaps in health funding, human resources management, gender-responsive care, health policy and legislative enactments, health research priorities, economic management and relevant constitutional provisions, Nigeria can build a healthcare system that truly works for all its citizens, leaving no one behind.”
The list is long. So is the distance between policy talk and the wards where staff shortages bite. Managed migration frameworks, better pay and improved working conditions may sound like a plan, but the article makes clear that the crisis has already reached the point where the system’s own capacity is being drained by migration and retirement at the same time.
The Lecture Circuit and the Power Above
Ijadunola added that the lecture provided a practical roadmap for repositioning Nigeria’s healthcare sector, noting that stronger political commitment would enable the country to leverage technology, innovation and gender-equitable policies to deliver quality, accessible and affordable healthcare. He said, “With a renewed commitment to healthcare as a national priority, Nigeria can leverage technology, innovation and a gender-equitable approach to deliver quality, accessible and affordable healthcare to its people. This is not just a moral imperative but a crucial step towards a healthier, more prosperous and more equitable Nigeria.”
The language of national priority always sounds neat from the podium. Down below, the workforce keeps shrinking. The article doesn’t name any grassroots response, mutual aid network or self-organized effort from workers or communities, only a call for governments, institutions, development partners and other stakeholders to act. That’s the familiar script: the same hierarchy that helped produce the crisis is asked to manage the fix.
Earlier in his remarks, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Medical Sciences, Ondo, Prof. Ebunoluwa Adejuyigbe, said the annual Oladipo Akinkugbe distinguished lecture was more than an academic tradition, describing it as a celebration of the enduring legacy of the late Emeritus Prof. Oladipo Akinkugbe, whose visionary leadership as the institution’s pioneer pro-chancellor and chairman of the Governing Council laid the foundation for the university’s growth. He said the theme of this year’s lecture was timely and reflected Akinkugbe’s lifelong commitment to excellence while addressing the pressing challenges confronting Nigeria’s healthcare sector. Adejuyigbe expressed confidence that the lecture would generate practical ideas and policy recommendations capable of strengthening healthcare delivery in Nigeria and beyond.
For now, the facts on the ground are simpler than the speeches. Nigeria’s health workforce is being drained by migration and retirement, and the people left inside the system are expected to keep it from buckling.