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20260806 013000 UTC
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[00:00:00] the fiscal and the monetary authorities make impact.
[00:00:03] 90% of Nigeria's economy is an informal sector, just like this
[00:00:07] markets and take for example, they're impacted by government
[00:00:11] policies like inflation rates,
[00:00:13] prices, keep going
[00:00:15] up. well trading
[00:00:19] is fast and mostly virtual, get the top stories are set to
[00:00:23] investing agenda. beyond Africa, we got you
[00:00:27] covered, it's a full menu for you every week.
[00:00:31] day
[00:00:32] of business morning and business incorporated only on channels
[00:00:35] television.
[00:00:50] in welcome back to the program everyone, well
[00:00:54] Nigerians have the brightest and smartest of minds
[00:00:57] anywhere in the world? but this
[00:01:01] ... let's turn that spotlight to the health sector where of course
[00:01:04] Nigerians are also trail blazers. We're joined this
[00:01:08] hour by Dr. Jidia for Minakayaya who is the
[00:01:12] president medical
[00:01:14] a association of Nigerians across Great Britain. Thank you
[00:01:17] indeed doctor
[00:01:18] of for speaking to us, you also the consultant neonatal
[00:01:22] pediatrician. Thank you indeed for joining us here on the program. Perhaps I should
[00:01:26] begin our conversation with Mr. President's.
[00:01:30] to you medical doctors to come back home
[00:01:34] and build our nation, we know how you and your colleagues have
[00:01:38] left, so my first question to you
[00:01:40] of would be, when are you back, you and your
[00:01:42] colleagues, thank you for having
[00:01:46] me, and thank you so much for for this time,
[00:01:50] and we are we
[00:01:51] are we coming back tomorrow if you like us to,
[00:01:55] of I think we are really
[00:01:56] wonderfully. age to have
[00:02:00] been part
[00:02:01] of the last diaspora health impact
[00:02:05] initiative withincom diaspora week of
[00:02:08] activities and what we tried to do there was to
[00:02:11] showcase what was possible uh
[00:02:15] bringing together and
[00:02:18] of the diaspora global medical
[00:02:20] expertise and what you saw there were not
[00:02:24] just doctors, midwives, nurses from the
[00:02:28] UK, but also people
[00:02:30] of as far as field as Australia, western
[00:02:34] Canada, um, Germany and
[00:02:37] of South Africa, so and of course America as well, so
[00:02:41] so what you saw there was, what we saw there was the
[00:02:45] beginnings, I hope of something that is going to
[00:02:49] be explosive in terms of really
[00:02:52] reshaping um Nigerian healthcare
[00:02:55] systems, so
[00:02:58] of doctor uh, before we
[00:03:00] of of get to all the things that
[00:03:01] you do, let let's lay before you some
[00:03:04] of the things that you are familiar with, and um, the
[00:03:07] concern as a matter of
[00:03:09] of fact, I hope they don't go on that strike, because I understand the federal government
[00:03:12] and the resident doctors have met yesterday, they had
[00:03:16] said if the the terms that they are putting out to the federal
[00:03:20] government is not met, they will go on strike on August the 10th, but the federal government
[00:03:24] has met with them, we haven't gotten the outcome of that meeting to avert
[00:03:27] that nationwide strike buse they... constitutes like the majority in
[00:03:31] of terms of doctors
[00:03:33] of in our healthcare facility, but when you met with the
[00:03:37] president, I think the issue as clear as
[00:03:39] crystal, welfare, working
[00:03:42] condition, remuneration, what kind of
[00:03:46] feedback did you get from the president, did you ladies as well, besides what
[00:03:50] you're doing, for your colleagues who are here and for those who may even
[00:03:54] want to come back if the conditions are
[00:03:55] better, um, I think that...
[00:04:00] "there is no healthcare system that doesn't
[00:04:04] struggle, you will be aware
[00:04:07] that in the UK um,
[00:04:11] the
[00:04:11] of resident doctors were on strike for over two
[00:04:15] of years, really looking at times and conditions
[00:04:18] of their practice, and so
[00:04:22] of it's not, it's not, it's
[00:04:24] of not unique to Nigeria that doctors or healthcare
[00:04:28] professionals or..." indeed any workforce we look
[00:04:32] at what is what's what is required for them to
[00:04:36] make their terms and conditions and welfare, the right
[00:04:40] approach for them, and it's for the negotiation with the government to
[00:04:44] continue. what i can say and
[00:04:47] i remember very care, very very clearly
[00:04:51] what the president said, he
[00:04:54] said, in those countries where you are, there
[00:04:58] are people whose hands are on the... plow working hard to
[00:05:01] improve their country's well-being and countries
[00:05:05] infrastructure and and I think what he asks
[00:05:09] us to do with our expertise and experience and everything
[00:05:12] else we have is to walk alongside our
[00:05:16] colleagues in Nigeria and because already there
[00:05:20] are very clear policy statements and policy
[00:05:24] frameworks for that and so by walking
[00:05:27] alongside our colleagues in Nigeria we will be able
[00:05:31] to support what's going on, improve
[00:05:34] welfare, improve their wellbeing and
[00:05:37] additionally help to bring those tasks and those
[00:05:41] um those skills that I think perhaps have been have
[00:05:45] been there been real difficulties in in bringing this across
[00:05:49] to Nigeria, but there are lots of Nigerian healthcare professionals
[00:05:53] across the globe who are really excited
[00:05:57] about the possibility of doing this more
[00:06:00] consistently rather than doing that a one of sort of
[00:06:04] one of one of
[00:06:05] events, well
[00:06:09] doctor, I mean thank you so much to you and your...
[00:06:13] That's one sector where um there are those who think that
[00:06:16] maybe perhaps the government needs to pay more attention to
[00:06:20] um in terms of uh the money
[00:06:24] budgeted for the health sector and and all of that
[00:06:28] but let me even speak to the issues around medical tourism
[00:06:32] um there was a time in this country where we
[00:06:35] read that people left the
[00:06:38] UK and US to come to Nigeria.
[00:06:42] especially in the university of ibadol, but the reverse is the
[00:06:46] case for many years down the line, in fact
[00:06:50] all the presidents of this country, or most the presidents of this
[00:06:53] country from Tunabu to Buhari have always had to
[00:06:57] travel uh for medical tourism,
[00:07:00] um, when you when you see that play
[00:07:03] out, I'm just wondering, what would it cost us to
[00:07:07] have the kind of systems in place
[00:07:11] where? VIPs would be comfortable
[00:07:14] enough not to travel, but to use our
[00:07:18] own health care systems here
[00:07:22] in Nigeria. I think that's a really important
[00:07:26] point you're making there. Um, I just give you a sense
[00:07:29] of the quality as well
[00:07:33] as the expertise of Nigerians across the
[00:07:37] globe. Um, but and also the increasing
[00:07:41] expertise. and the and and what you have in Nigeria
[00:07:45] and again thinking around the structures that are being put in
[00:07:48] place within the Nigerian setting, and as you say
[00:07:52] that, I know for example that there
[00:07:56] are people from other countries who are not coming to Nigeria for
[00:08:00] care, super specialist
[00:08:03] care, so just talk about um
[00:08:06] about things like the sort of things we
[00:08:09] did during the course the... national diaspora
[00:08:13] week and one of our colleague our colleagues from
[00:08:17] Australia what they did was to use
[00:08:20] ultrasonography to try and understand the condition called
[00:08:24] endometriosis to diagnose that prior to this will
[00:08:28] have been having to do that by a surgery and they
[00:08:32] also training radiologists and other clinicians about
[00:08:36] laparoscopic techniques and I know
[00:08:40] also that during this period there were colleagues from South
[00:08:44] Africa who did one the very
[00:08:46] first um procedures
[00:08:50] using interventional radiology to manage
[00:08:53] intrauterine fibroids so rather than having a really big
[00:08:57] operation and you able to simply use you
[00:09:01] interventional radiology to try and
[00:09:03] embolize fibroids in in the
[00:09:07] womb and and so and and of course there are many
[00:09:10] colleagues of ours who are now who do robotic surgery, there are
[00:09:14] hospitals in Nigeria now that have the equipment
[00:09:18] and the resources to do those things, I know during the course of our
[00:09:22] program we visited some the hospitals in Nigeria
[00:09:26] where there are really some really excellent
[00:09:30] facilities at sort of cotton edge
[00:09:32] medicine, lot them led by
[00:09:35] Nigerians and of course other international
[00:09:39] people, so so I think that what we want. to do is to
[00:09:43] harness all these experts, robotics surgeons,
[00:09:47] laboratory surgeons and pediatricians,
[00:09:50] neonatal pediatricians, obstatricians, you do name
[00:09:54] it, I think across the globe, Nigerians are there working
[00:09:58] at very high level, setting up those policies, setting up those
[00:10:02] clinical guidelines,
[00:10:04] and therefore there's no reason with certainly with the
[00:10:08] um, with the with the infrastructure we now have in Nigeria where we can't
[00:10:12] not continue to push this, just to say something
[00:10:16] around the framework for this, and we obviously have the
[00:10:20] health workforce migration policy which was signed by the president
[00:10:23] in 2024. and a
[00:10:26] specific sort of practice
[00:10:30] framework for that is what the medical and dental council
[00:10:34] of nigeria termed scaling
[00:10:38] strengthening collaboration and advancing clinical excellence,
[00:10:42] so that's a framework that the horrible minister of state for health launched
[00:10:46] in 2025 in London,
[00:10:49] so what I want to say to colleagues is that the
[00:10:53] era of reverse. tourism is one aspect
[00:10:57] the wider healthcare engagement, but actually we
[00:11:01] want to think not only reverse tourism, but the individual patients,
[00:11:05] the Nigerian patients as a whole, and making sure that the healthcare
[00:11:09] infrastructure is there for them. Whilst tourism brings
[00:11:13] in more money, I support, I suppose, but what of obs
[00:11:16] absolutely is important is that the health care of our
[00:11:20] colleagues, of our citizens are are the best they can
[00:11:23] be, and we have the... infrastructure to do that, not only with colleagues
[00:11:27] who are resident in Nigeria doing extremely hard work, but
[00:11:31] obviously leveraging and harnessing all those doctors and
[00:11:35] healthcare professionals that are all in the diaspora, and
[00:11:39] I think that it's bringing that forward that I think is
[00:11:43] what the key, I think that was the plea that the president uh
[00:11:46] meets when he met us two weeks ago, and I think what's
[00:11:50] what's what you have there is they've set out the
[00:11:54] framework. 'we've got the regulatory guidelines for
[00:11:57] that, we've got lots of hospitals who and and
[00:12:01] facilities that are there to take that forward and what we now want
[00:12:05] to do is to continue to do that consistently and to
[00:12:08] measure the impact we're having across the country.
[00:12:12] i just give you one example, sorry, you can land on that so i can throw in my
[00:12:16] question, well just give you one example, and one
[00:12:20] the key things that we know nigeria has struggled with
[00:12:24] is maternal and neonatal debts.
[00:12:27] Nigeria has the highest maternal and neonatal debts if not in
[00:12:31] in around the world, if not in in Africa. And so what
[00:12:35] we did from the UK, ourselves and our
[00:12:39] national meditry colleagues is to develop a whole new way of
[00:12:43] training staff and so we trained in the Northwest sector,
[00:12:46] northwest zone, we trained
[00:12:50] about about 80 or 90 people, and what they are going
[00:12:54] to do is to them to... cascade that training on how they
[00:12:57] would how they can improve care for mothers and babies,
[00:13:01] we are looking at the sort of things that cost mothers to die,
[00:13:05] maternal hemorage and poor breathing at the time they are
[00:13:08] born, but also working as multidisciplinary team,
[00:13:12] so what you have there is beginnings to change the
[00:13:16] culture within within the within the system so that
[00:13:20] everybody can work together as as a group
[00:13:24] and perhaps looking and making sure we are bringing everybody together
[00:13:28] rather than thinking there has
[00:13:29] to be a hierarchy, because is that multidisciplinary
[00:13:33] team that actually makes it possible for
[00:13:37] everybody to be used, everybody's skill set to be used
[00:13:40] in a way that benefits the patient, so yes we want to
[00:13:44] doctor, yes yeah, as we going to wind out
[00:13:48] mobility of labor is the mobility of labor is one of our biggest
[00:13:52] problem, that's why we have these doctors going abroad. so we're we're in deficit
[00:13:56] in terms the capacity uh numerical capacity that we
[00:14:00] require for our country, maybe we're doing a thous to 4,00, 1
[00:14:03] to 4,00 or one to 5,000 as against the global standard of maybe one to
[00:14:07] 1ous or one to one or 1,600,
[00:14:11] mean doctor to patient ratio, yes, but
[00:14:15] there's a lot of attention on the federal government and sometimes we do
[00:14:18] not uh look at the subnationals as much as we should, so
[00:14:22] let's take that opportunity, you met with the... president, but what about the
[00:14:26] conversation at the subnational level, because that's where the real impact
[00:14:30] happens, the federal government is one big institution,
[00:14:33] you know, but the subnationals, we have the words, which
[00:14:37] are components of local government areas and then the larger one
[00:14:40] the state level, we have all these state governors building, the
[00:14:44] president was even not happy the other day, say you're building flyovers in low
[00:14:48] traffic areas, so for instance now my state at quibum state, the
[00:14:52] former governor had built one very mega hospital. so I don't know the state of that
[00:14:56] hospital, but I don't think it's
[00:14:58] in as the shape it used to be, the current governor for instance now is
[00:15:01] building another mega, if it if he follows through with this, it's going to be the
[00:15:05] best hospital in terms of all the things that have been put there in Nigeria
[00:15:09] built uh by this by state government, but these are mega
[00:15:13] mega things, how many people will be able to afford the
[00:15:17] services that those hospitals will will give them, so let's talk
[00:15:20] about how to make healthcare
[00:15:23] affordable and accessible and efficient as well as
[00:15:27] effective for the local
[00:15:31] people, who can't afford
[00:15:33] the big moneies that these hospitals have been built will definitely
[00:15:37] charge. and it's
[00:15:41] a great question because it then looks at the wider the wider
[00:15:44] debate around um around around um
[00:15:48] around healthcare funding and that again is
[00:15:52] something that every country wrestles with. think in your your
[00:15:56] question there were a couple of things there. one
[00:15:59] was health worker migration
[00:16:02] and and and suppose what are the drivers, the push factors
[00:16:06] and the p factors for hell worker migration across
[00:16:10] across the country and so
[00:16:13] internationally and I think that's where the health
[00:16:17] worker migration policy has come in
[00:16:21] which recognizes the individuals
[00:16:24] aspirations for his own profesional development, but at the same
[00:16:28] time hunting those of us in the
[00:16:31] pasporad the country and look at ways in
[00:16:34] which we can contribute. in however way we
[00:16:38] can, expertise to Nigeria, so there have been
[00:16:42] two,
[00:16:44] and I think a win win in term respects in terms of that that approach.
[00:16:48] I talked about the scale program, which is
[00:16:51] relationship between the institutions of Nigeria as
[00:16:55] well as institution the UK, because what you want to do is to make
[00:16:59] sure that everything that is done is based on
[00:17:03] institutions rather than individuals, individuals can do things, but the...
[00:17:07] impact is not as much, but when institutions are working, then
[00:17:11] actually the impact is much bigger, and so
[00:17:15] within that you got scale like I talked about, and
[00:17:18] increasingly the federal ministry of health has just launched
[00:17:22] a portal called the Nid
[00:17:26] P, Nigerian in Diaspora Advanced Healthcare
[00:17:29] portal, and what that portal is there is to do is to
[00:17:33] ask any diaspora professional or organization,
[00:17:38] to express interest in what they want to do, and that
[00:17:41] portal can match you to areas of need. I think it's really
[00:17:45] important that as much, as much as possible, we
[00:17:49] tend to have to work within those sorts of
[00:17:53] systems. Now, you're right that the federal
[00:17:57] government is sort of one big organization, but
[00:18:01] health is very much a sub-federal a
[00:18:04] subfederal provision, and I you talked there. about some the
[00:18:08] hospitals that state governors and institutions are building,
[00:18:12] particularly to look after the healthcare needs their state, so
[00:18:16] absolutely
[00:18:17] and we will clearly support that and I think that and of course
[00:18:21] again at local government level there are also measures in in
[00:18:25] that space, when you are in the diaspora and you want to
[00:18:28] make impact, it's really important that all those layers of states
[00:18:32] and do do align, and one the good good
[00:18:36] things that really... came out the event that happened in
[00:18:40] diaspora week was that the agencies of state were aligned
[00:18:43] in doing things, so there is nothing stopping federal
[00:18:47] government to set out a framework and then for
[00:18:51] the state and local government to key into those frameworks, so for
[00:18:55] example for this mega hospital being built in
[00:18:58] aqua, bomb, it may be that um the the that
[00:19:02] hospital wants to do robotic surgery or it may want to do, i don't know
[00:19:06] laparoscopic surgery. and there's no reason why that's
[00:19:10] that government or that governor cannot reach out to
[00:19:14] this portal and say who are those in the diaspora would they have those
[00:19:18] skill sets and in then from there those people can then be
[00:19:21] supported to to provide that support that that that
[00:19:25] skill set in that hospital yes you can have a big hospital
[00:19:29] but if you don't have the skill set in that hospital and the
[00:19:32] governance then actually it doesn't it doesn't work so
[00:19:36] well when it comes to, when it comes to
[00:19:40] funding, in the UK, we have national
[00:19:43] health service, it is free at the point of use, there
[00:19:47] been lots of conversations around national health insurance
[00:19:51] scheme, national health insurance agency,
[00:19:54] and I think that that could be one way in which we can
[00:19:57] really work to to,
[00:20:00] you know, do that, do lot more with that, include the
[00:20:03] diaspora expertise, how do we contribute?
[00:20:07] how do we participate in the health health insurance schemes such
[00:20:11] that we can reach out to to our to patients in
[00:20:14] Nigeria, so so I think I think those conversations are
[00:20:18] live at the moment with WHO as well as
[00:20:22] NHIA as well as the Federal Ministry of Health to work
[00:20:26] out how do you bring in diaspora expertise
[00:20:29] working alongside colleagues to make sure that healthcare
[00:20:33] is is as much as possible uh reach out to everybody
[00:20:37] down the world level, well it's a fine place
[00:20:41] to anchor conversation with you, this are dr.
[00:20:44] g4 is go for menakaya is
[00:20:48] the president medical association of Nigerians
[00:20:52] across Great Britain is also a consultant
[00:20:55] neonatal pediatrician, thank you indeed for your
[00:20:58] insights on the program, thank you so much
[00:21:02] for having me, thank you, I'm so grateful, thank
[00:21:20] video of woman jumping into the lagoon near Idumot
[00:21:24] Catter Bridge, that's uh, if you if you go to the
[00:21:27] island and you're not using the Lagos third
[00:21:31] mainland bridge, but she was rescued by local boat operators,
[00:21:35] so we don't know the full story, the intention, but we
[00:21:38] understand she jumped into the lagoon uh, we really don't know what
[00:21:42] the full story is, but it will be nice to know
[00:21:45] what it is, but um, maybe she wanted to commit
[00:21:48] suicide, we don't. but i guess maybe life's
[00:21:52] challenges or health challenge it could be one of those things
[00:21:56] uh
[00:21:56] but you know we want to admonish Nigerians that yes
[00:22:00] things are very challenging which is why when we tell government things are challenging but you must
[00:22:04] do your best yeah to keep hope alive to keep faith
[00:22:08] alife pray to your god believe work hard and see how it plays
[00:22:12] out but we must commend the persons able to be quick
[00:22:15] in their response to rescue her uh when
[00:22:19] she's something to that river, but kelly
[00:22:21] we need to find out exactly what the reason is from government, hope, hope the legost
[00:22:25] government through this, it's very painful to see
[00:22:29] that you know someone will just jump into so the only two reasons,
[00:22:33] the only two reasons that comes to mind, health issue
[00:22:37] or just social issue economic issue that just bites hard and you're
[00:22:42] just like end
[00:22:42] let's this anymore, but um
[00:22:46] we we we wish her the very best, wish are quick recovery. second
[00:22:50] chance, so don't give up, so please don't give up, uh, renew your
[00:22:53] hope, you're not sounding like
[00:22:56] president, but let's just guess serious
[00:23:00] issue
[00:24:25] this is Nigeria Alex uh in Nigeria we believe in hard work so I mean you must
[00:24:29] have made your moneies but we want to ensure that you do not forget the
[00:24:33] values with you got when you were
[00:24:35] here
[00:24:39] but I mean I mean for I sometimes we have to do these
[00:24:43] things for the love of country for the love of country so
[00:24:46] Alex um we don't have a perfect system we are.
[00:24:50] hoping thriving and pray that we get there someday uh,
[00:24:54] but I mean God has blessed you, so please just be
[00:24:56] grateful. well, I, I just, I just wish austin,
[00:25:00] our colleagues in London will be able to will be the one to talk about
[00:25:04] what Alex is talking about, because un doesn't have very nice words
[00:25:08] for the NFF, in fact when you hear him talk about the
[00:25:11] administrators of our football, it feels like some the persons are there
[00:25:15] just there to just waste our time, not really interested in the game
[00:25:19] uh but this is fallout of when those kinds of
[00:25:23] leadership exists within our football body, which is that look,
[00:25:27] i i sometimes believe that when i just playing football whether it's a continental or
[00:25:31] the global level, even these evil bandits used to relax
[00:25:34] to that units nigerians, they only that's why i love football, if
[00:25:38] you want to know why i love football as far as national team is concerned
[00:25:42] is the reason why that's the only moment yeah nigeria can never nobody
[00:25:46] talks religion nobody talks politics nobody nobody cares
[00:25:51] 'm our sense of patriotism comes alive and these are the gentlemen
[00:25:54] and the ladies who give us that moment of pride, the least we can
[00:25:58] do is to give them the best of treatment so that when you go to podcast'.
[00:26:02] We
[00:26:26] know what's happening across Nigeria's various regions and channels
[00:26:30] tell.
[00:26:36] "you've seen the news, you've heard their stories, as I see
[00:26:39] the road up too much, I told my family to just go out, the climate
[00:26:43] crisis is here and getting much closer,
[00:26:46] rice, the jaws
[00:26:48] dry, so let's look at the
[00:26:52] solutions and the way forward at these times on earth
[00:26:56] f."
[00:30:37] we'll start from what's going on in the global oil space, this morning we saw
[00:30:40] that oil prices steadied after steep falls in previous
[00:30:44] two trading sessions, investors are waiting to see if
[00:30:48] efforts to end the US Iran war, which we know oman
[00:30:52] has interven, if that will restore traffic through the
[00:30:55] blockade straight of homose, if that mean progress
[00:30:59] today.