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For several years, Nigerians have expressed frustration over the tendency of public office holders to seek medical treatment abroad even for minor ailments like malaria rather than improve and utilize local healthcare facilities.

This trend is especially common among political leaders, senior government functionaries, and some affluent private individuals.

Frequently, these overseas medical trips are funded by public resources, placing the financial burden on the general population, many of whom lack access to quality healthcare services.

Understandably, this situation has drawn public outrage.

Many citizens argue that these leaders, who spend taxpayers’ money on well-equipped foreign hospitals, are in effect enriching other nations’ economies while neglecting and weakening Nigeria’s own health system.

Critics emphasize that these same officials, who wield influence at various levels of government, are in the best position to revamp the health sector and ensure universal access to quality medical services.

According to public opinion, another troubling aspect is that some officials lose their lives during treatment overseas. The aftermath often includes high costs related to their repatriation and medical expenses costs usually covered by the Nigerian government.

Adding to the irony, many of the foreign hospitals that attract these medical trips are staffed by Nigerian healthcare professionals who emigrated in search of better opportunities.

Just last week, former President Muhammadu Buhari passed away while on a medical trip to London. Reports confirmed that the Federal Government covered all expenses, including hospital and transportation fees.

Beyond public frustration, medical professionals have also raised alarms over the financial impact of medical tourism on Nigeria’s economy. It’s estimated that the country loses approximately $1.3 billion annually to this issue.

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This concern was highlighted during the fourth edition of the Public Health Grand Round at the University of Medical Sciences (UNIMED), Ondo. The event, organized by the Faculty of Public Health, brought together healthcare experts and stakeholders.

Isaac Oluyi, the university’s Public Relations Officer and keynote speaker, quoted Dr. Habibu Yahaya, the WHO Coordinator in Ondo State, who attributed the annual $1.2 billion loss to the vulnerability of Nigeria’s health system.

According to him, “This is not unconnected with the shocks often experienced by the country’s health system. Nigerian health systems face acute shocks including epidemics, pandemics and chronic stressors like poor funding and persistent strikes.”

Earlier, the acting Vice-Chancellor of the university, Professor Adolphus Loto had stressed the importance of system resilience in public health, saying, “A system has both input and output. Resilience is the ability of the system to withstand pressure without breaking.

“Building our health system to resist shocks, while continuing to deliver essential services, is non-negotiable.”

Experts at the event pointed out that a major contributor to the system’s fragility is the shortage of skilled personnel.

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Panelists—including representatives from academia, government, and the health sector—unanimously advocated for measures like task shifting, better compensation, sustainable financing models, emergency readiness, health equity, community involvement, innovation, research, efficient referral frameworks, and accurate workforce tracking to strengthen the system.

Professor Ofonime Johnson, acting Dean of the Faculty of Public Health, described the Grand Round as an annual forum for scientific discussion and analysis of emerging challenges in the field of public health.

Meanwhile, reacting to the enormous financial outflow from medical tourism, public affairs commentator James Osewele condemned the trend, calling it disgraceful.

He argued that political leaders including the president and vice president, governors and their deputies, and lawmakers should be barred from traveling abroad for healthcare.

In his view, such a bold policy would be the first meaningful step toward revamping the Nigerian health system to ensure it serves all citizens, regardless of status or income.

He said: “The figure, as far as I am concerned, is a modest estimation. I am sure that when proper statistics are taken, it could even double that amount. But, it is very shameful that a country as big as Nigeria cannot fix its own health sector, such that its presidents see foreign medical trips as part of governance.

“Look at what happened to former President Umar Musa Yar’Adua; he died in a London hospital. Thereafter, he was brought back to Nigeria as cargo and buried.

“A similar thing repeated itself last week with the death of former President Muhammadu Buhari in the same London hospital. He was also brought back as cargo and buried.

“Our current President Bola Tinubu has made foreign medical trip a routine since he assumed office as president. The same applies to so many other politicians in Nigeria.

“I strongly believe that unless there is a law in place to stop them from such foreign medical trips, our health sector can never work. But, if they are prevented from accessing foreign medical assistance, they would fix the health sector because they know they will be using it.

“It is just like the argument that public officials should stop sending their children abroad for education. It is equally believed that when such a thing happens, the issue of the incessant ASUU strikes and other teething problems in the education sector would be a thing of the past.

“Public officials in Nigeria should be banned from going abroad for medical care. After all, most of the medical personnel, ranging from doctors to nurses, pharmacists and lab scientists, who attend to them over there are Nigerians.

“So, why won’t they build and equip hospitals with state-of-the-art modern medical equipment so that these medical professionals will stop migrating and stay back home to offer their services to their fatherland?

“When they do that, they would have killed even more than two birds with one stone. First, it will create jobs for the country’s medical personnel who are moving in droves to foreign lands in search of greener pastures.

“Secondly, it would reduce unnecessary wastage for the country as they would no longer be spending foreign currency to get medical help but Nigeria’s local currency, the Naira. Thirdly, it will also attract outsiders, who would also come to Nigeria for medical services. In fact, the benefits are many.”

Also speaking, a medical doctor with a private hospital in Lagos, Davies Olanrewaju, equally agreed that the figure released by the experts at the medical university in Ondo is moderate. He stated that the actual figure is far more than that.

He decried the way and manner medical personnel, particularly the doctors, are treated in Nigeria. He noted that apart from inadequate incentives to motivate them, the working environment is also not encouraging. “So, when one has an opportunity to go out of the country, he or she doesn’t think twice.

“This is because apart from the passion to save lives, doctors also want to make money and be able to solve family and other personal financial problems. And with what they are paid in Nigeria, no doctor will think twice when the opportunity to travel overseas to practice beckons,” he said.

Also, a nurse, Mrs Omoruyi Victoria condemned the state of health facilities in Nigeria, stressing that she feels nostalgic each time she remembers that there was a time when foreigners came to Nigeria to receive medical care.

“Each time I remember what we were told that the royal family of the Saudi Arabian king used to come to Nigeria for medical care, I shudder. The question is what went wrong. I think our leaders just stopped financing the health sector.

“Nigeria’s annual health budget is far below the United Nations’ minimum standard. It is a shame. If we expect our health care system to be like those of the advanced countries, then we must urgently do something about the country’s annual health budget; that is the starting point.

“Then, we must be deliberate about the implementation of health policies in Nigeria. That is the only way that Nigeria’s health system can regain its past glories and ultimately end the craze for foreign medical trips which has unofficially become a way of life for public officers in the country.

“That will also discourage the country’s health professionals from seeking better life abroad and working in Nigeria to help strengthen its health institutions,” she stated

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