Asma'u Ribadu

•Doctor •Humanitarian •Feminist •Public health enthusiast

[Asma'u Ribadu @asmie95]

Allow me to reintroduce myself.. My name is Dr. Asma’u Ribadu..

[Dr Mohammad Usman Suleiman @mohagirei]

_*WHEN IS TOO MUCH REALLY TOO MUCH*_
_*what we should all be worried about*_

I write this with great constraint, sadness and a profound sense of loss of faith.

In the last one (1) month, three doctors lost their lives. Three members of NARD lost their lives.
1. Dr. Salome Oboyi, A Senior Registrar in the Obs and Gynae department of BHUTH Jos
2. ⁠Dr. Jamila Umar Danhassan, A Registrar in Community Medicine Department of AKTH Kano
3. ⁠Dr. Akinjobi Carrington, A House Officer in LASUTH Lagos.

It would interest us all to know that this brings the number of Resident Doctors who lost their lives in the last four and a half (4 1/2) months to (10) ten.

It would interest you to also know that a Resident Doctor also tested positive (and eventually tested negative for Lassa Fever) in the last 2 weeks.

Will it not baffle your imagination to know that a Resident Doctor is battling for her life in a hospital in Enugu following a road traffic accident?

I am angry, I am scared, I am afraid I may be next, I am awake to my own thoughts these days and a prisoner to it. Nigeria, what have we done wrong as Doctors?

Life is just moving on in Nigeria as if nothing has happened.

Of the 9,000 resident Doctors at the federal level and another 1,000 at the state level, 10 have lost their lives in less than 5 months.

We have lost over 10,000 Resident Doctors over the last 10 years to Migration and we are on course to loose another 10,000 in the next 10 years with a net deficit of about a thousand (1,000) doctors per year.

New recruitment into Residency Training has dropped by more than 40% in the last few years.
Attrition rate out of Residency Training has also increased with over 4,600 doctors leaving the shores of Nigeria in 2024 alone.
I am sure, Nigeria did not produce more than this number of Doctors from our medical schools in 2024.

We now have more Senior Registrars than Registrars, more Senior Registrars than there are House Officers in Nigeria.

Add these (now regularly regular) deaths to the statistic, we are surely heading in the wrong direction.

Ten (10) is a few too many, especially in Nigeria where these 10 Doctors by population are suppose to cover at least 100,000 Nigerians with a doctor to patient ratio approaching 1:10,000. WHO recommends 1:600 to 1,000.

We have approximately 25,000-30,000 Doctors currently actively practicing at various levels and strata of patient care in Nigeria. To cover our entire population, we need over 300,000 Doctors.

What the above statistics mean is this. 30,000 Doctors are doing the Job that should be done by 300,000 Doctors. And off the 30,000, Resident Doctors are less than half of that.

When doctors die, or any health care professional die, it is a source for worry and panic.

Is this not a national crisis?
Doesn’t this deserve our attention?
What is killing our Doctors?

What may be responsible? (not in order of priority);
1. Excess work load.
2. ⁠Lack of Motivation and under appreciation.
3. ⁠Poor Remuneration and excess outstanding monetary arrears.
4. ⁠Challenges in career progression.
5. ⁠Lack of Job satisfaction.
6. ⁠Epidemiological and natural distributions of disease entities.
7. ⁠Security challenges.
8. ⁠Inability to afford services in Nigerian Hospitals.
9. All of the above?
10. ⁠etc

10 care givers gone.
10 healers gone when they were needed the most.

Why am I worried;
1. I can be next and the whole country would just move on and I become a statistic.
2. ⁠These hospitals would simply replace them with anyone alive, available and willing. And work will just continue as if…
3. ⁠The Nigerian Health Sector will just continue in its march to decline, silently.
4. ⁠Their families will never be whole again.
5. ⁠The Nigerian Government simply cares little or nothing. The next election is more valuable to Government, certainly.
6. ⁠The Nigerian People are simply too unaware, too poor, too distracted to even notice.

@channelstv @seunokin @ARISEtv @tvcnewsng

[@bhudoctors @bhudoctors1]

The entire BHUTH mourns 🕯️🕊️

It is with a very heavy heart I announce the passing of a dearest colleague Dr. Salome Oboyi, a Senior Resident in the department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in BHUTH whose sad event happened 2 days ago following a battle with lassa fever.

[Mahmud Ribadu @mahmudribadu]

The team let Nwabali and Calvin Bassey down. Top performance from both players

[Algeria FC @Algeria_FC]

Brahim Diaz pulls Calvin Bassey's jersey .. so the referee calls foul for Morocco and gives Calvin Bassey a yellow card 😂

[Johannes Tobi Wojuola @Johannxs]

He fought to keep us till the penalties; those tasked with the penalties failed him.

[Johannes Tobi Wojuola @Johannxs]

N.W.A.B.A.L.I.

[Algeria FC @Algeria_FC]

How do I explain to my kids that Calvin Bassey is the one that got a yellow card for this ? 😂

[Frank Ugah @smartugah]

With all this, Bassey end with yellow card... Ghana refbis realt ugly from inside to outside !!!

#AFCON2025 #AFCON

[Mahmud Ribadu @mahmudribadu]

Lost an uncle yesterday night, the type of person that everyone only has memories of "good vibes" with. What a blessing to depart the world with everyone saying good things about you.

[Bappa Iya @UzkayRibadu]

So jovial. He joked with the young and old. He gave me the name Uzkay. Allah lamido yaafu en yaafu Bappa Modibbo

[Gru @Lawi_IA]

They really looked at over 200m Nigerians & appointed this guy as minister of state for defense. See ehn…

[Haych @leschique]

We lost a colleague early hours of this morning.
One of those hard workers, taking up every job just to make ends meet.
He did homework with his kids before resting for the night, then never woke up.
I am not ok.
The system is robbing us of our best hands.
#DoctorsLivesMatter

[Mahmud Ribadu @mahmudribadu]

Permit me to Re-introduce my wife Dr Aminatu Aliyu Ismaila - newly minted Dr in International Relations and Political Science. Always no 1 from BSc to Masters and now PhD. Proud Husband

[Dr Mohammad Usman Suleiman @mohagirei]

Safe work hours save Patients
Safe work hours save Doctors

Nigeria can save both Doctors and Patients

“An MoU that does not guarantee immediate and verifiable action is not worth the paper it is written on"

[Sage of the Six Paths @DrJohnAfam]

This is a Public Service Announcement.

Over 11,000 Doctors in 90+ teaching hospitals are going on strike starting on the 1st of November.

Here are the 19 demands 👇🏾 🧵

[OurFaveOnlineDoc 🇬🇧 🇳🇬 @OurFavOnlineDoc]

When you hear “resident doctors in Nigeria are going on strike”, you should be scared for your life and add your voice to pressure the government to listen to them.

The Nigerian resident doctors make up 90% of the doctors you see in almost all the specialised government hospitals in Nigeria.

These people do all of the hard work, in a terribly underpaying environment, saving lives in under-equipped hospitals, yet they are treated like slaves earning peanuts even though they also have bills and families.

The doctor is not your enemy.
The Nigerian government is.
Please lend your voice to help these doctors so they can also help you too.

[Aproko Doctor Global @aproko_doctor]

NARD is not even asking for anything new, they are fighting for PROMISES ALREADY MADE AND BROKEN.

Our doctors are being owed
​Months of salary/allowance arrears, many are made to work in very unholy conditions.

When the strike starts, people might turn on the doctors and make them the enemy, meanwhile, the FG who should be held accountable thrives on the sidelines, meanwhile this strike is a symptom of a dangerously SICK HEALTH SYSTEM.

Healthcare has always been costly, very expensive actually, but the government needs to show the people that it cares about their healthcare and make sacrifices, explore other funding options for our healthcare.

You can't expect a healthy country if you treat your doctors anyhow.

[O_B_C @OBC_IB]

We saw big bros them buy cars (and even advance professionally) with money earned after 1 year as HOs, talk less of MDs then.

Now, Consultants can't fuel their cars, Resident MDs trek home from work, HOs' pay can only afford thrift wears & data subscription.
#strike2savenijadrs

[NARD @nard_nigeria]

This is a National security matter and a national Disaster and We hope the Government gives it the National Emergency Attention it deserves!!!!!!

- Dr. Mohammad Usman Suleiman

[NARD @nard_nigeria]

A PASSIONATE APPEAL TO THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE FEDERATION

Dear President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR

Your Excellency Sir,

Warm greetings to you from the entire body of Resident Doctors in Nigeria; a vital group of young medical professionals who provide specialist care and constitute a significant portion of the nation’s healthcare workforce.

We write to you today with deep concern and a profound sense of duty to draw your urgent attention to the worsening state of Nigeria’s health sector. Our healthcare system, Sir, is on the verge of collapse, a situation that has now assumed the dimensions of a national emergency and a matter of national security.

Your Excellency, we are aware that some individuals around you may have assured you that the challenges facing resident doctors have been resolved. Respectfully, Sir, that information is not accurate. Our realities in the hospitals across Nigeria tell a different story. Many of our members are yet to receive their legitimate entitlements, despite several signed agreements and repeated assurances from government representatives.

We are not politicians. We are doctors; men and women devoted to saving lives, working long hours in often harsh and under-resourced conditions. Our appeal is simple and sincere: we seek not luxuries, but the basic salaries, allowances, and welfare packages that have already been approved and promised by government.

Sadly, while many in privileged positions continue to receive their full emoluments without delay, the frontline doctors who shoulder the burden of patient care are left struggling. This inequity is demoralizing and threatens the very foundation of our healthcare delivery system.

Mr. President, you have always been known for your compassion, fairness, and courage in addressing difficult national challenges. We therefore appeal to your fatherly leadership to personally intervene and resolve the long-standing 19-point demands of the Nigerian Resident Doctors in order to restore hope, trust, and stability to our health sector.

We believe that under your decisive leadership, Nigeria’s health system can once again stand strong to serve our people with dignity and save countless lives.

May God grant you the wisdom, strength, and goodwill to act swiftly in the interest of all Nigerians.

Thank you Your Excellency for your kind attention and anticipated action.

Dr. Mohammad Usman Suleiman
President, Nigeria Association of Resident Doctors
27:10:2025