The Kwara State Government on Tuesday cried out over an inadequate number of medical doctors in the state’s health facilities because of brain drain, popularly called ‘Japa’ syndrome.
Speaking during the 2025 first quarter interministerial press briefing organised by the state Ministry of Communication in Ilorin, the state capital, among cabinet members, the Executive Secretary of the Kwara State Hospital Management Board, Dr. Abdulraheem Abdulmalik, said that the board could not find doctors to recruit to work under the state government, despite approval given by Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq to recruit new doctors.
Blaming the situation on the ‘japa syndrome’, the executive secretary said, “We have approval of His Excellency to recruit doctors, but we can’t just find the doctors to recruit. Doctors are hot cakes now. If a doctor resigns in the morning, he will get another job in the afternoon”.
Abdulmalik, who said that the state government presently has only 99 doctors as against the required 180 to 200 medical personnel for the state, added that only 96 medical doctors were on the government’s payroll before.
“The three medical doctors who left the service returned after the recent increase in doctors’ salaries by Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq.
“We actually had 96, but after His Excellency increased the salary, three of them who ‘japa’ came back. So, we have 99 right now. We’re expecting more at the moment. We need about 180 to 200 medical doctors,” he said.
Consequently, the board said it was developing a software application that will give patients visiting its 45 health facilities information on the number of doctors available at a particular period to reduce the usual delay in seeing doctors and avert a situation where sick patients would collapse while waiting to see a doctor at the hospitals.
The executive secretary said that rural areas are those places where the challenge was more pronounced, adding that the board was working out remuneration and incentives for doctors “with resources available, which will be at par with what is obtainable in the western world ,where most of the doctors were leaving for greener pastures”.
Abdulmalik also said that there is a retention plan by the state government to close the gap on the required number of medical doctors in the state, adding that the plan would kickstart in four years’ time.
“On recruitment, we have presented prerequisites to The Excellency on actually harvesting doctors from medical schools. So, the state government sponsors you as a student for maybe a year or two years, and you pay back by working for the state for those two years in which the state has invested in you.
“That means we will continue to have a cycle of students. So, the state government sponsors you for three years, you work for the state government for three years before you ‘Japa’. So, that would mean there is a closing of the gap for medical doctors. Of course, that would kick off in about three to four years because we are starting from their clinical level, which is 400 level,” he said.
Responding to questions on the training of nurses and fear that the trained nurses may leave the country for greener pastures, Abdulmalik said, “They will ‘japa,’ regardless, but we are not as desperate for the nurses as we are for doctors because the social circumstances favour nurses staying in the country.
“Most of the nurses are women, and their movements depend on where their husbands are stationed. Some do ‘Japa’ but we are not as desperate for nurses.”
He said despite the challenges, the state’s health facilities have continued to witness improved enrolment, saying that between January and April this year alone, the state’s 45 health facilities saw 43,065 patients, including 12,000 pregnant women, out of which 2,000 of them were newly registered.
Also, during the period under review, Abdulmalik said that the state’s health facilities carried out 1,000 surgeries across the state’s health facilities within the first quarter of 2015.
Meanwhile, the executive secretary said that the board recorded 1,384 child deliveries, out of which 131 were carried out through caesarean section, during the period under review.
The 131 caesarean sections, according to him, were an improvement, as it represents 9.5 per cent, a figure which he said came close to the World Health Organisation recommended range of 10-15 per cent.
Abdulmalik added that 30 mortalities were also recorded across health facilities during the period under review.
He announced plans by the state government to partner with indigenous drug manufacturers to reduce the amount of foreign exchange the state was expending on the procurement of drugs abroad.
In his own account, the state Commissioner for Justice, Ibrahim Sulyman, represented by A. Grillo, said that a total number of 437 criminal cases were received in different courts, namely magistrates’, area courts, high courts, etc in the first quarter of the year.
He said that 47 of the cases have been concluded, while 387 of the cases are still pending in different courts within and outside the state.
The commissioner also said that a total sum of N689 million was generated for the coffers of the state government through vetting of the contract sum agreements.
