The strike, beginning at 12 a.m. on Monday, August 26, 2024, is a protest demanding the release of Dr. Ganiyat Popoola, who has been kidnapped for over 8 months.

NARD President Dr. Dele Abdullahi announced the strike following a virtual Emergency National Executive Council meeting on Sunday, August 25, 2024.

The strike will be total, with no emergency care provided during this period.

Dr. Popoola, a registrar in the Department of Ophthalmology at the National Eye Centre in Kaduna, was abducted along with her husband and nephew.

While her husband was released in March, Dr. Popoola and her nephew remain in captivity.

This action follows recent protests by NARD members in tertiary hospitals across the country, urging for Dr. Popoola’s immediate release.

The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Pate, made this announcement on Friday during the sectoral ministerial press briefing in Abuja to mark President Bola Tinubu’s first year in office.

Over the years, a significant number of health workers in Nigeria have migrated to other countries due to inadequate equipment, worsening insecurity, poor working conditions, and a poor salary structure.

Data from the Medical and Dental Consultants’ Association of Nigeria shows that approximately 1,056 consultants left the country between 2019 and 2023.

Additionally, the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors reported that over 900 of its members left for Europe between January and September 2023.

Prof. Pate stated, “We have doubled the intake, the enrollment, the quotas of medical schools, nursing schools, and other health professionals’ schools from an enrollment target of 28,000 a year to 64,000 now.”

Regarding Primary Health Care Centres, the minister noted that at least 1,400 centers can now provide skilled birth attendants.

He mentioned that over 2,400 health workers, including doctors, nurses, and midwives, are being recruited to provide essential health services in rural areas.

Prof. Pate also highlighted that the Federal Government has disbursed the first tranche of N25 billion from the Basic Health Care Provision Fund through the National Primary Health Care Development Agency and the National Health Insurance Authority.

He stated, “We put a condition that states that those who will access those have to comply with the fiduciary guidelines that have been provided, responding to lapses that have been observed over here so that the resources go to Nigerians. Twenty-three states have received those funds, and I believe that the rest of the states are just about to complete and receive their financing to channel through the PHCs.”

The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Tunji Alausa, had previously mentioned in October 2023 that the government had put strategies in place to increase admissions into medical and dental institutions.

Dr. Alausa noted that the 3,000 doctors produced annually in Nigeria were inadequate and that the mass exodus of licensed doctors and other health professionals to more developed countries would be discouraged by making the healthcare environment more attractive

However, the association argued that instead of the proposed five-year mandatory service, a national emergency should be declared in the health sector.

The National President of the association, Dr. Kayode Adesola, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Lagos.

The proposed bill, according to Adesola, was based on the incorrect assumption that it would stop the brain drain from the health sector and would therefore have a negative impact on the industry.

He claimed that before advancing such a measure, the bill’s supporters did not perform in-depth research on the causes of the brain drain disaster or consult with health stakeholders about the ramifications.

Adesola noted that the bill would exacerbate the nation’s brain drain.

He mentioned that medical professionals don’t require a license from Nigeria to practice abroad.

“We keep saying that the health sector needs urgent attention. Our health system is not working and many Nigerians are dying because of the underfunding of the sector.

“We have teaching hospitals, general hospitals, and primary healthcare centres dilapidated with outdated equipment.

“Political leaders are seeking medical treatment abroad while the citizens are left to suffer in a country with one of the world’s best doctors.

“Before it was the young doctors leaving but now, the consultants are leaving. Many health workers left because of insecurity, not just poor remuneration or poor working conditions.

“Insecurity is impacting negatively on the health of Nigerians and the ability of healthcare workers to deliver services to Nigerians

“Asides the medical doctor that was killed at his clinic on Dec.31, 2022; two other doctors have also been killed and nothing has been done to rectify the situation,” he said.

He noted that the issue of brain drain was multifaceted and requires a more comprehensive approach to tackle it.

Adesola stressed that declaring an emergency in the health sector would assist to proffer sustainable solutions to attrition of health workers, improved healthcare facilities, and reduced disease burden among others.

Recall that the House of Representatives on April 6, passed for second reading a bill seeking to mandate Nigerian-trained medical and dental practitioners to practice for a minimum of five years in the country, before being granted a full licence.

The bill sponsored by Ganiyu Johnson, an All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmaker from Lagos, said the bill seeks to amend the Medical and Dental Practitioners Act 2004, to address the brain drain in the Nigerian health sector.

The Minister of State for Health, Ekumankama Nkama, revealed this over the weekend at the opening of the Labor ward, adult intensive care unit, neonatal intensive care unit, and paediatric intensive care unit at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital.

According to Nkama, the impacts of brain drain and job overload have led to a severe lack of medical experts at LUTH and other tertiary health facilities.

He spoke on behalf of the ministry through Dr. David Atuwo, Director of the National Cancer Control Programme, saying, “This ‘japa’ syndrome is adversely affecting services in our hospitals, to the extent that some wards are closed for lack of personnel to man them.”

Nkama added that the Federal Ministry of Health with other government agents including the office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation is working very hard to ensure that exiting staff is replaced as soon and seamlessly as possible.

“The ministry is also working on a brain gain mechanism whereby our health professionals in the diaspora can be incentivised to come home and give paid expert service to our citizens. This is a win, win situation for the nation and our experienced medical professionals in the diaspora.”

“I am glad the Head of Service is here in person as her office has been very cooperative. Let me thank her profusely for all her efforts in this regard. The full implementation of this initiative will ensure that services are maintained at the present level.”

The minister continued that the inauguration of the three projects has shown the hard work of the Board of management, and staff of LUTH over the years and has resulted in the current success.

He described the projects as a testimony and a thing of pride, especially for the outgoing Chief Medical Director.

President of the NMA, Dr Ojinmah Uche revealed this on Wednesday in Abuja during a policy dialogue on the country’s health sector brain drain and its implications for sustainable child and family health service delivery.

The event was organised by the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies in collaboration with the Partnership for Advancing Child and Family Health at Scale project of the development Research and Projects Centre.

At the event, Uche said: “So in eight years, USA produced and acquired (Brain drain) more doctors than Nigeria has produced from 1963-2021 (58 years).

“The real shocker comes when you note that what was reflected by the USA record were “actively licensed physicians” not just those registered to practice.

“At this juncture, I leave to your imagination the number of actively licensed physicians in Nigeria relative to those registered to practice as stated above.

“Available data places it around 24,000 giving a horrible true ratio of approximately 1:10,000. This ratio of 1:10,000 is a national average but in most states, the situation is palpably worse.”

The helmsman of the doctors’ association further said that the situation is worse in the northern part of the country where one doctor is available to treat 45,000, disclosing that in rural areas, people travel more than 30 kilometres before accessing a healthcare facility.

“Only one doctor is incredibly available to treat 30, 000 patients in some states in the south, while states in the North are as worse as one doctor to 45,000 patients.

“In some rural areas, patients have to travel more than 30 kilometres from their abodes to get medical attention where available thus making access to healthcare a rarity.

“Based on WHO established minimum threshold, a country needs a mix of 23 doctors, nurses and midwives per 10,000 Population to deliver essential maternal and child health services. This explains why Nigeria ranks as one of the countries with the worst maternal and child mortality rates,” Uche added.

A medical practitioner, Dr Chioma Ofoekii, stated this while speaking the NAN on Wednesday in Abuja.

According to him, a girl’s body can begin to change into that of an adult too soon, in what is known as precocious puberty.

Menstruation or period as commonly called – is normal vaginal bleeding that occurs as part of a woman’s monthly cycle.

Every month, the woman’s body prepares for pregnancy; if no pregnancy occurs, the uterus or womb sheds its lining, while the menstrual blood is partly blood and partly tissue from inside the uterus.

According to the expert, precocious puberty refers to “the onset of secondary sexual characteristics” usually occurring before the age of eight in girls; and prior to the age of nine in boys.

“In girls, this will commonly manifest as breast development, menstrual bleeding, pubic and auxiliary hairs, acne, and rapid bone and muscle growth.

“A girl who starts menstruation at a young age is usually because the hormones responsible for puberty are being produced earlier,” she noted.

“The symptoms in boys include enlarged testicles and penis; a deepening voice and facial hair, often on the upper lip.

Causes, at the level of the brain, include hypothalamic lesions, hydrocephalus, brain tumours, infections and

trauma; while other causes may include ovarian cysts, tumours of the adrenal gland, congenital adrenal hyperplasia and obesity.

Accordingly, it is important to note that it can also be genetic, in which case it is just based on family genes.

She, however, says family history may reveal a similar early onset of puberty in the mother and other female siblings, citing some complications to include short stature or otherwise known as dwarfism; low self-esteem, and psychological stress.

The union says the strike is coming on the heels of the inability of the Federal Government to meet its yearnings in June this year.

The demands by the doctors include a pay rise, better welfare, and adequate facilities, union leaders said.

The industrial action by the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), which represents some 40 percent of doctors, is the latest in a string of stoppages by medics to hit Africa’s most populous nation as it struggles to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

“We have kicked off the strike today,” NARD president Aliyu Sokomba told AFP, adding that medics treating virus cases would join the action this time around.

“There will be no exemptions,” he said.

Sokomba said long-standing issues such as provision of life insurance, a pay rise, payment of salary arrears as well as provision of adequate facilities for doctors were the reasons for the strike.

“We have arrears of 2014, 2015, 2016, salary shortfalls that were supposed to have been paid over six years ago, still pending,” he said.

“These are the issues we have and they appear not to have been addressed up till this day,” he said.

“It is an indefinite strike,” Sokomba said, adding that it would be called off only when the union’s demands were met.

The video was first published by Breitbart News, a right-wing medium co-founded by Steve Bannon, a former aide to American President, Donald Trump.

In the video, which was shot in front of the United States Supreme Court, Dr Immanuel is seen with seven others wearing white lab coats calling themselves “America’s Frontline Doctors” and addressing the press.

President Trump, who is up for reelection in November, shared multiple versions of the video with his 84 million Twitter followers on Monday night.

During the press conference, she claims “you don’t need masks” to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, and that recent studies showing hydroxychloroquine is ineffective for the treatment of Covid-19 are “fake science” sponsored by “fake pharma companies”.

“This virus has a cure, it’s called hydroxychloroquine, zinc, and Zithromax,” the woman claims. “You don’t need masks, there is a cure.”

The claims run contrary to multiple studies on the anti-malarial drug and advice from public health officials to prevent the spread of the virus.

According to CNN, a study found that neither hydroxychloroquine alone nor hydroxychloroquine plus azithromycin appeared to affect the condition of patients at the 15-day mark. Additionally, unusual heart rhythms and elevated liver-enzyme levels were more frequent in patients receiving hydroxychloroquine alone or with azithromycin, according to the study.

The video quickly went viral on Facebook, becoming one of the top-performing posts on the platform with more than 14 million views before it was taken down Monday night for promoting misinformation. It was shared nearly 600,000 times, according to Crowdtangle, a data-analytics firm owned by Facebook.

“We’ve removed this video for sharing false information about cures and treatments for COVID-19,” a Facebook spokesperson told CNN, adding that the platform is “showing messages in News Feed to people who have reacted to, commented on or shared harmful COVID-19-related misinformation that we have removed, connecting them to myths debunked by the WHO.”

Twitter worked to scrub the video late Monday night after Trump shared versions of the video that amassed hundreds of thousands of views.

“We’re taking action in line with our Covid misinfo policy,” a Twitter spokesperson told CNN.

Twitter took action against the videos that Trump retweeted. By early Tuesday morning, the videos were no longer able to be viewed on his account. Twitter also took action on a version of the video posted by Donald Trump Jr. and others shared by Breitbart News.

The video was also removed by YouTube, where it had been viewed more than 40,000 times. Users attempting to access the video late Monday were greeted with a message that said it had been removed for “violating YouTube’s Community Guidelines.”

According to the website for America’s Frontline Doctors, the group is led by Dr. Simone Gold, a Los Angeles-based emergency medicine specialist who has previously been featured on Fox News for her views that stay-at-home orders are harmful. Gold told the Associated Press in May she wanted to speak out against stay-home orders because there was “no scientific basis that the average American should be concerned” about Covid-19.

America’s Frontline Doctors could not be reached for comment late Monday.

Adeyeri was to have died after allegedly attending to a suspected COVID-19 case and eventually died at the Federal Medical Centre, Owo.

Ondo NMA Chairman, Dr. Wale Oke, confirmed this to journalists in Akure on Thursday.

Dr. Adeyeri was the Chief Medical Director, CMD, Dr. Timothy Adeyeri of Shekinah Hospital in Alagbaka Area of Akure, Ondo State.

InsideOjodu recalls that Ondo Commissioner for Health, Dr. Wahab Adegbenro, also died a week ago after also contracting coronavirus.

This was confirmed in a statement signed by the Chairman, Dr. Saliu Oseni and the Secretary of the association, Dr. Moronkola Ramon, the NMA on Thursday.

According to the statement, their decision to reverse the order was necessary after the Nigerian Police Force and the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu resolved the issues and assured the safety of all health workers.

“The leadership of the Association has followed the turn of events while monitoring the situation. The Nigerian Police Force has reached out to the association to clarify and give assurance of cooperation with all health-workers.

“This, they have also done in the media. The Executive Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu was exemplary as his timely intervention from the late hours of May 19th helped prevent worsening of the situation.

“The association has further received assurances from Mr. Governor and the top hierarchy of the Police that no health workers will be further harassed in the course of their lawful efforts to sustain services in the middle of the pandemic.”

They added that the passionate appeal from the good people of Lagos state was difficult to resist considering the fact that Lagosians would be most hit by the situation.

They said following a holistic consideration of these factors, the Lagos State, NMA,  had taken seriously, a responsibility to partake actively in the fight against COVID-19 and the delivery of quality healthcare to the citizenry for the entire period of the ongoing lockdown/ restriction of movement and beyond.

The medical doctors demanded that the Lagos state government should ensure clarity at all times, on the exempted status of healthcare and other essential workers for the entire period of the ongoing lockdown/restriction of movement.

They added that the Association will continue to monitor the situation and will not hesitate to take any action to protect the safety of their hardworking members.