I am still here but the doctor in me has d!ed a long time ago - Nigerian doctor shares on how poor medical care has broken the spirit of many doctors and how the ones leaving Nigeria are given the least opportunities abroad
I am fighting to get:
1. 25/35% outstanding arrears paid.
2. House officers Professional Allowances implemented.
3. Promotion arrears for doctors in 60 hospitals across the country over a period of 5 years paid.
4. Salary arrears in UUTH Uyo, FMC Owo, FUHSTH Otukpo, OAUTHc Ile Ife ranging from 4 months to 22 months paid.
Collective Bargaining that the FG set up to renegotiate Doctors and Health Workers Salaries has been stalled
So yes, Don’t ask what doctors earn monthly.
Rather, ask what our politicians earn monthly.
Ask if there is any elected official that is owed 20 months salary arrears.
Ask why?
Then ask how many Doctors left the shores of Nigeria in 2025. It was >4,500 in 2024.
In fact, the question to ask is how come we still have doctors in Nigeria?
Yes, there was a day broke down at Sanya bus stop. I was working three hospital jobs and I was returning from a hospital at Iyana Isolo to Festac to do my night duties at another hospital. (This was rouughly 3 years after I left medical school and almost nothing to show for it expect living from hand to mouth and almost drowning in extra responsibilities.)
The bus I entered was a one-chance bus. They violently dropped me at Sanya bus stop after i screamed violently inside the bus, i picked up myself and cried in the middle of the road.
I was done, I was tired. I was suffering too much to be suffering this much.
Three jobs, three different hospitals and my monthly take home couldn't finance my exam fees to japa.
I was depressed, I had had enough. At the same time I was making videos trying to educate people on healthcare on Facebook.
Things had been hard from the day since I was a child, while other children were sleeping, I would wash beans by 4am for akara that my mum would fry and sell, every day except Sundays even on school days. While other kids were playing in the evening, i would be at the bus stop feeling pap after school.
I knew hardwork! Labor! That day at Sanya bus stop, I cried my eyes out, I wanted to give up. For some reason, I picked up my bag, cleaned my eyes and went to the hospital and did my night shift.
If i didn't give up that day. Nothing else would have made me give up. That day was the make or break day.
We're Starting a Uni 'tour'.
We just want to give people the opportunity to ask important Questions whilst providing them with doctrinal answers.
It's Called "Quest for Truth Conference, and we're starting in two location"
Bowen: 21st March
UniAbuja: 28th March.
Thanks!
We need more doctrine and teaching than we need Holy Ghost meetings.
If the Lord opens the doors of Campuses to you, please lead with doctrine, not power.
Teach more than you "Flow"
It's from these campuses that the next gen of ministers will arise.
I'll start.
This video literally sums up the struggles of Medical doctors in Nigeria. Especially the House officers & Residents.
48hrs call, why? Because you did it Or the doctors before us did?
Would you let a pilot who has been flying for 48hrs non stop & exhausted to fly your plane?
The other day I was discussing how doctors are underpaid and the amount on X and one other doctor was saying if we have seen other sectors discussing their pay here on x.
Meanwhile the entire world and your family think as a doctor you are earning millions of Naira monthly.
Let's keep telling Nigerians how healthcare workers are poorly renumerated in the country.
This video made me laugh, to be honest.
Not because it was funny. But because the shock on his face was so real. He genuinely could not believe it. And that disbelief says everything about how far removed most people are from the true state of our healthcare system.
To those of us inside it, there was nothing shocking.
There is nothing about this system that is working the way it should, and it goes far beyond doctor salaries. Our healthcare system is failing, not in a sudden collapse, but through a slow, ongoing stretch that has been building for years. Hospitals are under-equipped, units are understaffed; demand keeps rising , expectations remain high.
New hospitals are opened, but they are often run by the same limited workforce already stretched across existing facilities. The number of buildings and patients grows, but the number of trained staff does not, leaving the system thinner, more fragile, and increasingly dependent on resilience rather than proper structure.
And when systems stretch without reinforcement, they stop being systems. They become tests.
How long can you work until your break down?
how many jobs can you do to make ends meet?
how many followers do you have to get so you can leave medicine?
how much do you need to raise to take PLAB
That is what drives many of the behaviours doctors are criticized for. Multiple jobs. Side ventures. Migration. Exit from clinical practice. These are adaptive responses to structural instability. When your professional environment is built more on resilience and coping mechanisms than on stable design, you either absorb the strain and break under the weight of ever increasing expectations or you redistribute it.
It is a vicious cycle. Underfunding leads to strain. Strain leads to attrition. Attrition increases workload for those who remain. Increased workload accelerates burnout. Burnout fuels further exits. Meanwhile, public surprise flares up in moments like this and everyone is "Shocked".
So yes, I laughed. Not because it is amusing, but because everyone is always suprised to discover that Nigeria’s healthcare system runs on the backs of underpaid, under-resourced professionals. But it always also ends there - shock.
And after it trends, morbidity and mortality statistics continue to reflect the deeper truth.
The system will keep stretching, and patients (you and i) will keep paying the price.
E shock you!
It’s crazy, but true…
Consider that a Senior Registrar contracted LASSA FEVER and died chasing a salary of 400k per month.
In any case,
E shock una abi?
As of right now it'll cost you 19,080,000 naira in school fees alone to study medicine in one of the cheapest private universities in Nigeria... BINGHAM UNIVERSITY.
Note: 1 year housemanship you'll earn 267,000 monthly that's 3,204,000 naira for the year.
NYSC 1 year: 120,000 monthly that's 1,440,000 for the year.
Junior Reg: 4 years flat rate 400,000
that's 14,400,000 for 3 years.
That's a total of 19,044,000.
So that means you'll work for 5 Good years before you earn ONE SINGLE NAIRA from the SCHOOL FEES you paid minus other expenses.
5 YEARS OF NO SLEEP, NO LIVE, HARDWORK, RISKING YOUR LIFE, INSULTS.
And this is a "cheap' private school.
Can someone do for the likes of schools like Nile University