No fewer than 20,966 Nigerian health workers relocated abroad within one year, official figures obtained by Saturday PUNCH have revealed.
The mass exodus includes 3,919 doctors, 7,487 nurses and midwives, 6,861 medical laboratory professionals, 702 pharmacists, 658 physiotherapists and hundreds of other specialists, according to the State of Health of the Nation Report 2025.
The growing migration came under the spotlight following the revelation that a Senior Consultant Neurosurgeon at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Dr Salamat Aliu-Ibrahim, had relocated to the United States.
Aliu-Ibrahim, a foremost neurosurgeon, now works as Medical Director, Paediatrics, Freeman Children’s Clinic, a facility under Freeman Health System in Joplin, Missouri.
This is as data obtained by Saturday PUNCH from the United Kingdom’s General Medical Council showed that 4,691 Nigerian-trained doctors joined the UK medical register between May 2023 and April 2026.
According to the GMC register, 15,896 Nigerian-trained doctors — comprising 9,664 males and 6,232 females — are currently licensed to practise in the UK.
But President Bola Tinubu, on Friday, appealed to Nigerian diaspora medical professionals to attract more Nigerians back from abroad to contribute to the country’s development, adding that there is nowhere like home.
20,966 Nigerian-trained health workers migrated
An analysis of the State of Health of the Nation Report showed that only 60,551 of the country’s 95,456 registered doctors currently hold active practising licences, representing just 63 per cent, with only 51 per cent of licensed doctors actively employed within Nigeria’s health system.
The nursing and midwifery workforce, Nigeria’s largest health profession, has also suffered substantial losses, recording the highest level of migration among all health professions.
