News

Japa: Doctors Proffer Solutions At Tinubu Town Hall

Published

3 years ago

February 11, 2023

A number of medical professionals have tabled viable solutions for the next administration to use as a workable strategy to resolve the perennial problem of brain drain plaguing the health sector.

The brain drain phenomenon, which was rechristened as ‘Japa’, has seen a generation of young health workers, tech entrepreneurs and a number of professionals dumped Nigeria as a result of insecurity, corruption, failed leadership and several other factors.

Speaking at a medical town hall meeting on BAT Health Agenda in Abuja on Saturday, a medical doctor and serving lawmaker representing Ogun Central Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Dr. Lanre Tejuosho, explained that ‘Japa’ is a problem any serious government can tackle.

While stating that he is happy that the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has indicated tackling ‘brain drain’ as one of his priorities in his ‘Renewed Hope’ manifesto, he said the problem can be resolved if the right policies and initiatives are implemented.

Tejuosho, who is also the pro-chancellor of University of Lagos, told our reporter that if the president and the health minister are willing to tinker with the idea of allowing doctors to be self employed, it will go a long way in tackling brain drain.

According to him, having the feel of ownership of over 30,000 Primary Health Centres and knowing that they are in charge of drugs procurement, provision of water and power would give doctors, nurses and other health workers a sense of belonging.

“We should try to think in the direction of making all our health professionals self-employed. When I say self employment, I am talking about taking advantage of the over 30,000 Primary Health Centres in Nigeria today.

“Let’s say, as you graduate as a medical doctor or as a senior nurse, you are put in charge of that particular health centre. We will allocate to that centre about 10,000 Nigerians that are already insured in terms of health insurance.

“That means the money to run the place is guaranteed because the monthly allocation from National Health Insurance Scheme of the 10,000 patients attached to that centre will be able to pay the salaries of the staff including the nurses and the doctors.

“With that, they should be able to also maintain the drugs, water, electricity and basic needs of those centres. I am aware that the NHIS pays around N750 per patient every month.

“If we sum this figure up with 10,000 patients, it should give each centre about N7.5m per month. Let it be given to these doctors and nurses to run.

“Of course, we know not all the 10,000 patients will come to the centre every month. But you will always have money to run PHC,” he said.

When reminded that the plan looks good only on paper, the UNILAG Pro-Chancellor agreed that implementation of the initiative is paramount.

Tejuosho claimed that as Chairman of Senate Committee on Health, it was one of those ideas he has been pushing for the attention of the Federal Government and health ministry.

He said, “That is why I am telling you that the implementation is key. It is part of what we are here to talk about. It is part of what Asiwaju as president must pursue with the implementation of that Health Insurance Act. This is my idea that I will be proposing to him. It is not in the Act or any law.

“As Chairman of Senate Committee on Health, I have been saying this for a long time. We will also make sure that there is enough money in the basket. It’s now a matter of making it practical.

“We have the infrastructure, give it to the medical doctors. Our doctors abroad will come back because they won’t be making that kind of money in London or other part of the world.

“All we need to set up is a monitoring committee that will ensure that we monitor what these doctors are doing. Anyone that doesn’t perform, we will take it from them and give to another person.

“In no time, doctors from London and other places will be queuing to come and be self employed.”

The Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Faisal Shuaib, on his part said he has nothing against doctors, nurses and other health care sectors are leaving the country in droves.

He, however, encourage the incoming president to upgrade the health sector including a better pay package that would appear irresistible to even those who dumped the country for prospects abroad.

Shuaib also canvassed that the incoming administration should focus on special arrangements for doctors and health workers on annual leave abroad to return to the country to share their expertise and help in technology transfer.

“We need to stop the one-way traffic. There is nothing wrong with people wanting to seek greener pastures abroad.

“What we need to put in place measures that will make sure that they also give back to Nigeria where they are trained.

“In a lot of instances you find in countries with similar situations as ours, their professionals abroad actually remit a fixed amount of money back to their home countries.

“And this is something that is agreed with the host countries so that we always find people come in bringing resources.

“It should also be done in a way that is well organised. We don’t even have adequate doctors and nurses in the health care sector.

“It’s not about saying that people should not go. Focus should be also be on how to encourage them to come back, even if it is during their annual leave.

“They can come back and also give back to our health sector some of the advanced technologies, advanced capabilities that they’ve learnt,” he advised.

Appreciating the participants and speakers at the town hall, the APC PCC head of Medical Directorate, Dr. Ikechukwu Odikpo, noted that he observed many Nigerians are not particularly asking questions on what Tiinubu presidency has to offer.

According to the medical doctor, healthcare as presented in his principal’s manifesto covers critical areas such as human resources, brain drain, health tourism, infrastructure, universal health care and health financing.

“That is why today we have assembled the very best across Nigeria medicare to dialogue on how to better our health care sector and services.

“But we want Nigerians especially Medicare professionals and our youths to be part of our actions and decisions hence this town hall meeting.

“When health is absent, wisdom cannot reveal itself, strength cannot fight, intelligence cannot be applied, art cannot become manifest and wealth becomes useless.

“Let’s create a wealthy nation by putting our health care services in the right perspective,” he said

News

Tinubu Grants Presidential Pardon To Herbert Macaulay, 174 Others

Published

15 minutes ago

October 9, 2025

Editor

The Council of State on Thursday approved the exercise of the presidential prerogative of mercy for 175 persons across various categories.

The decision followed a presentation by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), who conveyed President Bola Tinubu’s recommendations based on the report of the Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy, at Thursday’s Council of State meeting held at the State House, Abuja.

Although the full names of the beneficiaries are yet to be published, our correspondent gathered that pardons were granted to one of Nigeria’s founding fathers, Herbert Macaulay and former FCT minister in the Babangida regime, Maj-Gen. Mamman Vatsa (retd).

Members of the Ogoni Nine and Ogoni Four are also beneficiaries.

“Herbert Macaulay and Vatsa are among the two major ones on that list,” a source who attended the meeting told our correspondent.

Macaulay, often called the “father of Nigerian nationalism,” was twice convicted by the colonial authorities in Lagos.

In 1913, while in private practice as a surveyor, he was tried for misappropriating funds from an estate he administered and sentenced to prison; historians have long debated the fairness of that prosecution.

In 1928, after his Lagos Daily News published incendiary claims during the Eleko (Oba of Lagos) agitation, he was convicted of sedition in the so-called “Gunpowder Plot” case and jailed for six months with hard labour.

Vatsa, a poet, former FCT minister and member of the Supreme Military Council, was executed by firing squad on March 5, 1986, after a secret military tribunal convicted him of treason over an alleged coup against then military ruler Ibrahim Babangida, his childhood friend.

The case has remained controversial for decades, with periodic calls for a posthumous pardon.

Out of the 175 beneficiaries, 82 inmates were granted a full presidential pardon, 65 had their sentences reduced, while seven death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment.

Briefing State House correspondents after the meeting, Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna state explained, “82 of the inmates were granted full pardon, 65 had their sentences reduced, while seven death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment.

“The decision underscores the President’s commitment to justice and correctional reform.”

The meeting, chaired by President Tinubu, also ratified key appointments, including Dr. Aminu Yusuf from Niger State as Chairman of the National Population Commission and Tonge Bularafa as Federal Commissioner representing Yobe State in the Commission. Both appointments received unanimous approval.

News

Senate Fives FG Ultimatum To Submit Budget Performance Report

Published

23 minutes ago

October 9, 2025

Editor

The Senate on Thursday directed the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, Accountant-General of the Federation, Samsudeen Ogunjimi and Director-General of Budget Office, Tanimu Yakubu, to submit a comprehensive performance report on the 2024 budget within two weeks.

Analysts have expressed concerns that the move could delay President Bola Tinubu’s presentation of the 2026 fiscal proposal to the National Assembly.

The upper chamber, through its Committee on Finance, warned that the report must also capture projections for the capital component of the 2025 budget before consideration of the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP) for 2026–2029 can proceed.

The order came from the Senate Committee on Finance, chaired by Senator Mohammed Sani Musa (Niger East), after a one-and-a-half-hour closed-door meeting with the three top officials.

The MTEF/FSP is a critical fiscal planning document that provides the foundation for Nigeria’s annual budget.

It outlines the Federal Government’s macroeconomic assumptions, revenue projections, spending priorities, and debt management strategies over three years.

Under the Fiscal Responsibility Act, the document must be approved by the National Assembly before the President can present the next budget.

But Musa insisted the Senate’s consideration of the MTEF/FSP for 2026–2029 would only follow after the submission of the requested documents on October 23.

“The expectations we are having are for the ministry to, as a matter of urgency, bring the MTEF for 2026 to 2029. The minister has briefed us, and we have collectively agreed that we are making progress, but we need to make more progress,” Musa told journalists after the session.

“We have heard from the Accountant-General and the Director-General of Budget on where we are with the budgets — the payments so far released, warrants signed, as well as the 2025 authority to incur expenditure for agencies to be able to execute their capital projects.

“We have all agreed that we want documented evidence of the performance of 2024 and our expectations for the 2025 budget before we start talking about the MTEF for 2026. The Honourable Minister of Finance has agreed to oblige us with that progress report, and we will reconvene on October 23,” he added.

Before the meeting went behind closed doors, committee members were confronted with conflicting accounts of budget performance from the Federal Government’s economic team.

While Finance Minister Wale Edun claimed the implementation of the capital components of the 2024 and 2025 budgets was recording “high performance,” the Director-General of the Budget Office, Tanimu Yakubu, painted a more sobering picture.

According to Yakubu, the assumptions underpinning both fiscal years’ budgets were largely unmet due to global and domestic shocks.

“We have indeed had a turbulent year — one in which most of the assumptions underpinning the 2024 and 2025 budgets turned out differently from projections. Oil revenue, assumed at $75 per barrel, fell short by between $10 and $15 due to global price fluctuations.

“Inflation also rose beyond projections, affecting borrowing costs and debt service performance, which significantly exceeded targets. Furthermore, the unforeseen fiscal implications of the Petroleum Industry Act (2022) have compounded our challenges.

“Under the Act, 30 per cent of gross oil revenue and 30 per cent of oil and gas profits are retained for upstream operations, while the Federal Government also bears the NNPC’s operating costs.

“This has reduced the Federation Account allocation by nearly 70 per cent of what used to accrue. In addition, crude oil output has been lower than projected in the MTEF approved by the National Assembly,” he said.

The Senate’s insistence on a detailed performance evaluation comes amid rising fiscal pressures, declining oil revenue, and increasing debt service costs — all of which could complicate the formulation of the 2026–2029 economic framework.

News

Why I Picked Amupitan As INEC Chair – Tinubu

Published

4 hours ago

October 9, 2025

Editor

President Bola Tinubu on Thursday explained that his choice of Professor Joash Amupitan (SAN) as the new Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission was based on his apolitical stance, integrity and impeccable record of service.

“President Tinubu told the council that Amupitan is the first person from Kogi, North-Central state, nominated to occupy the position and is apolitical,” a statement by Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, quoted him as saying.

The President spoke at the State House, Abuja, during the meeting of the National Council of State, which unanimously endorsed the nomination of Amupitan to succeed Professor Mahmood Yakubu, whose decade-long tenure as INEC Chairman ended on Tuesday.

Tinubu told council members that Amupitan, a professor of law from Kogi State, North-Central Nigeria, is the first person from the state to be nominated for the top electoral job.

Council members, including serving and former leaders, backed the nomination, describing the professor as a man of proven integrity.

Kogi State Governor, Usman Ododo, said Amupitan’s track record “reflects a deep commitment to justice, knowledge, and national service.”

Following the council’s approval, the President is expected to transmit Amupitan’s name to the Senate for screening and confirmation in line with constitutional provisions.

Aged 58, Amupitan hails from Ayetoro Gbede in Ijumu Local Government Area of Kogi State.

A professor of law at the University of Jos, Plateau State, he is currently the institution’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Administration) and also serves as the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of Joseph Ayo Babalola University in Osun State.

He obtained his Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctorate degrees in law from the University of Jos, after earlier studies at the Kwara State Polytechnic, Ilorin.

Called to the Nigerian Bar in 1988, Amupitan has built an extensive academic and administrative career spanning over three decades.

He became a Senior Advocate of Nigeria in 2014 and has written extensively on company law, corporate governance, and evidence law.

His published works include Corporate Governance: Models and Principles (2008), Documentary Evidence in Nigeria (2008), Evidence Law: Theory and Practice in Nigeria (2013), and Principles of Company Law (2013).

Beyond academia, Amupitan has served on several boards, including Integrated Dairies Limited in Vom, the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, and the Council of Legal Education.

He was also a board member of Riss Oil Limited, Abuja, between 1996 and 2004.

The Kogi-born scholar, described by colleagues as “a jurist of quiet influence,” is married with four children.

When confirmed by the Senate, Amupitan will become Nigeria’s 15th INEC chairman.