Why prosperity on the horizon must include our hospitals

Last Tuesday in Abuja, President Bola Tinubu told the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria that the economy had recovered. “The alarm for bankruptcy and dark tunnel of uncertainty that we had when I came in has been changed,” he said. “This government has stabilised, and there is prosperity on the horizon. Life is improving.”

Also last week, the President met with Nigerian doctors in the diaspora. The conversation was about brain gain — calling on professionals abroad to return and help strengthen a health system that has been stretched for years.

Both meetings speak to the direction the administration wants to take. One appeals to faith and national morale. The other appeals to expertise and service. For either to have meaning, Nigerians must feel the impact where it matters most: in the clinic, the health centre, and the teaching hospital.

It would be unfair not to acknowledge that strides are being made. The Federal Government has approved the recruitment of more than 20,000 health workers to ease staffing shortages. The Basic Health Care Provision Fund has been doubled, with a renewed push to revitalise primary health centres. Under the Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Initiative, there is greater focus on data, accountability, and the upgrade of equipment. Investment in local pharmaceutical manufacturing is also being scaled up. These are concrete steps, and they deserve to be sustained.

This administration also deserves commendation for the recent upgrade of the Snake Bite Hospital in Kaltungo, Gombe State to a full research centre. For years, Kaltungo has been the frontline in treating snakebite victims not just from Nigeria, but from across West Africa. Elevating it to a research centre is a recognition of that burden and an investment in science, treatment protocols, and local capacity. It signals that specialised, rural health facilities can be prioritised and that research can be rooted where the problem is most acute. This is the kind of targeted intervention that builds confidence in the system.

Yet policy on paper must translate to care at the bedside. In June, house officers in UATH Abuja, UCTH Calabar, FMC Umuahia and five other federal hospitals withdrew services over unpaid salaries. In early July, doctors in Lagos embarked on a warning strike over deductions and arrears. Nurses have been protesting a circular issued in June that they say reduces their allowances. These are not isolated incidents. They are symptoms of a system under pressure.

The bishops who met the President raised concerns about security, education and poverty. Each of those concerns intersects with health. Security loses meaning when victims of violence arrive at hospitals without surgeons or blood. Education loses value when medical graduates have no senior registrars to mentor them. Poverty deepens when families are forced to sell assets to pay for care that should be accessible.

The dialogue with diaspora doctors is important. Many are willing to teach, invest, and provide remote support. But the success of brain gain depends on first addressing brain drain. It is difficult to ask professionals to return from London, Houston, Toronto and Saudi Arabia while those currently in service are owed months of pay and working with inadequate tools. Patriotism alone cannot sustain a workforce.

The President told the bishops that “we don’t have another country but here.” That sentiment must extend to the people who keep the health system running. They are not leaving because they do not love Nigeria. They are leaving because the conditions for staying have become untenable.

If prosperity is truly on the horizon, then it must be measured not only by macro-economic indicators but by the experience of an ordinary citizen who walks into a public hospital and receives timely, dignified care from a motivated and well-equipped professional.

That requires paying salaries on time, reviewing welfare packages that have remained static for a decade, expanding recruitment to match need, and ensuring that facilities have drugs and equipment. It requires protecting health workers from violence and from policy inconsistencies that undermine morale.

The economic reforms underway are difficult but necessary. The discussions at the Africa Emerging Markets Forum in Abuja this week on resilience are timely. True resilience will be seen in a health system that does not collapse under pressure, that retains its people, and that delivers for the citizen.

We believe that brain gain can help accelerate that goal. But it cannot be the foundation. The foundation must be the doctors, nurses and other health workers who are here now.

Prosperity on the horizon will ring hollow if we arrive there with empty wards.