…Urges states to emulate Rivers by massive training of medical doctors to reduce effect of exodus
Peter Odili, veteran medical practitioner and former governor, has given tips on how to reduce the ‘japa’ syndrome in Nigeria.
Odili, who is founder of the PAMO Medical University in Port Harcourt, said upward salary review would stem the mass exodus of medical doctors.
He also gave another tip, urging states to emulate Rivers by embarking on mass training of medical doctors through scholarship scheme, saying it would reduce ‘japa’ effect by replacing those that leave the country.
Odili spoke at the ‘Induction/Oath-taking’ of 65 newly graduated medical doctors from PAMO University of Medical Sciences (PUMS), on Monday, October 6, 2025, at the Iriebe campus of the university.
The first civilian governor of Rivers State after military rule is also the Pro-Chancellor as well as Chairman of the University he founded with his wife, Mary.
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The former state governor said upward review of their remuneration would reduce brain drain witnessed in the health sector.
He stated the University has produced over 330 healthcare professionals in less than eight years of existence, adding that if other institutions across the country could move at the same pace, the country would have enough medical practitioners and will not be affected by unprecedented exodus abroad for greener pastures. He inferred that the country does not have the power to stop workers from moving beyond borders but suggested attractive salaries and fast reproduction of medical doctors could be better option.
The former governor who studied medicine at the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu through Fatima Kyari, a professor and Registrar/Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN), for bold step in the health sector.
Odili said: “We congratulate him (Tinubu) and we urge him to pay very special attention to the training of health professionals because they hold the key to national health. A healthy nation is a wealthy nation.
“We must be healthy first before the wealth. So, congratulate him (Tinubu) and urge the Federal Government to invest more and also look at the review of the remuneration of health workers. That way, we would be killing two birds with a stone.”
Odili went on: “You can imagine what would happen when all the other schools across the country move at the pace PUMS is moving. Nobody will worry about who moves, running away with japa or whatever they call it, looking for greener pastures.”
The initiative began during Nyesom Wike when the school was started, but Sim Fubara continued it. Odili said: “So, let me use this opportunity to thank the Rivers State government, especially the governor, Siminalayi Fubara, for the initiative and sustenance of the scholarships for students who are indigenes.
Kyari, while inducting the graduands into MCDN, charged them to be good ambassadors of the institution and the council.
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She advised them to see their field of career as a calling and not a profession, warning that any person who indulges in any unwholesome practice would be sanctioned accordingly by the council.
The professor further warned the inductees not to build their practice on the trending artificial intelligence (A.I.), but on empathy with human feelings, which she said connects doctors with their patients.
The advice came at a time some prominent Nigerians have died because doctors were either never available or insisted on police report before attending to critically wounded patients especially at night.
