Niger State has a population of 5 million but ‘only 350 doctors’
The house of representative member representing Bida/Gbako/Kacha Federal Constituency, Honourable Saidu Musa Abdul (SMA), has lamented that the whole of Niger only has 350 medical doctors to attend to the over 5milion population of the state. The lawmaker said this and many more factors made him propose for the establishment of a medical University in […]
Working conditions are difficult for doctors in Nigeria forcing many of them abroad
The house of representative member representing Bida/Gbako/Kacha Federal Constituency, Honourable Saidu Musa Abdul (SMA), has lamented that the whole of Niger only has 350 medical doctors to attend to the over 5milion population of the state.
The lawmaker said this and many more factors made him propose for the establishment of a medical University in Bida, Niger State.
The lawmaker said this while featuring on a radio programme in Minna, the state capital.
He said, “We have a data from JAMB and also from the Medical DENTAL council of Nigeria between 2015 and 2018 over 520,000 Nigerian students applied to study MBBS, but the system could only admit about 19,000 which is less than 5 percent in terms of what the system could absorb, it leaves a wide gap, not just in Niger state now but across the country.
“Record from MBBS shows that today in Niger state we have just about 350 medical doctors against the population of 5 million, if you do the numbers the way against the population, you will appreciate that against the WHO recommendation you will appreciate that the state is no where the recommended standard of the WHO. We see a kind of gap that we must deliberately try to manage which led to the proposed bill for the establishment of medical University in the state. ”
He also lamented that a lot of students from the state have been denied the opportunity to pursue their dream.
Aside the medical university bill, the lawmaker said he is also pushing for the rice importation restriction bill.
He said this is meant to engage the domestic production capacity and bring it to reality by putting the rice producers on the right pedestal as well as restricting the influx of milled rice into the country and encourage local producers.
For Niger state to benefit more from the above, he said he is also pushing for the establishment of Federal College of Agriculture in Kacha Local Government, council which he described as the highest producer of rice in the country.