Google Speech-to-Text API Automatic Transcription (Chirp). Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:00the fiscal and the monetary authorities make impact.
00:00:0390% of Nigeria's economy is an informal sector, just like this
00:00:07markets and take for example, they're impacted by government
00:00:11policies like inflation rates,
00:00:13prices, keep going
00:00:15up. well trading
00:00:19is fast and mostly virtual, get the top stories are set to
00:00:23investing agenda. beyond Africa, we got you
00:00:27covered, it's a full menu for you every week.
00:00:31day
00:00:32of business morning and business incorporated only on channels
00:00:35television.
00:00:50in welcome back to the program everyone, well
00:00:54Nigerians have the brightest and smartest of minds
00:00:57anywhere in the world? but this
00:01:01... let's turn that spotlight to the health sector where of course
00:01:04Nigerians are also trail blazers. We're joined this
00:01:08hour by Dr. Jidia for Minakayaya who is the
00:01:12president medical
00:01:14a association of Nigerians across Great Britain. Thank you
00:01:17indeed doctor
00:01:18of for speaking to us, you also the consultant neonatal
00:01:22pediatrician. Thank you indeed for joining us here on the program. Perhaps I should
00:01:26begin our conversation with Mr. President's.
00:01:30to you medical doctors to come back home
00:01:34and build our nation, we know how you and your colleagues have
00:01:38left, so my first question to you
00:01:40of would be, when are you back, you and your
00:01:42colleagues, thank you for having
00:01:46me, and thank you so much for for this time,
00:01:50and we are we
00:01:51are we coming back tomorrow if you like us to,
00:01:55of I think we are really
00:01:56wonderfully. age to have
00:02:00been part
00:02:01of the last diaspora health impact
00:02:05initiative withincom diaspora week of
00:02:08activities and what we tried to do there was to
00:02:11showcase what was possible uh
00:02:15bringing together and
00:02:18of the diaspora global medical
00:02:20expertise and what you saw there were not
00:02:24just doctors, midwives, nurses from the
00:02:28UK, but also people
00:02:30of as far as field as Australia, western
00:02:34Canada, um, Germany and
00:02:37of South Africa, so and of course America as well, so
00:02:41so what you saw there was, what we saw there was the
00:02:45beginnings, I hope of something that is going to
00:02:49be explosive in terms of really
00:02:52reshaping um Nigerian healthcare
00:02:55systems, so
00:02:58of doctor uh, before we
00:03:00of of get to all the things that
00:03:01you do, let let's lay before you some
00:03:04of the things that you are familiar with, and um, the
00:03:07concern as a matter of
00:03:09of fact, I hope they don't go on that strike, because I understand the federal government
00:03:12and the resident doctors have met yesterday, they had
00:03:16said if the the terms that they are putting out to the federal
00:03:20government is not met, they will go on strike on August the 10th, but the federal government
00:03:24has met with them, we haven't gotten the outcome of that meeting to avert
00:03:27that nationwide strike buse they... constitutes like the majority in
00:03:31of terms of doctors
00:03:33of in our healthcare facility, but when you met with the
00:03:37president, I think the issue as clear as
00:03:39crystal, welfare, working
00:03:42condition, remuneration, what kind of
00:03:46feedback did you get from the president, did you ladies as well, besides what
00:03:50you're doing, for your colleagues who are here and for those who may even
00:03:54want to come back if the conditions are
00:03:55better, um, I think that...
00:04:00"there is no healthcare system that doesn't
00:04:04struggle, you will be aware
00:04:07that in the UK um,
00:04:11the
00:04:11of resident doctors were on strike for over two
00:04:15of years, really looking at times and conditions
00:04:18of their practice, and so
00:04:22of it's not, it's not, it's
00:04:24of not unique to Nigeria that doctors or healthcare
00:04:28professionals or..." indeed any workforce we look
00:04:32at what is what's what is required for them to
00:04:36make their terms and conditions and welfare, the right
00:04:40approach for them, and it's for the negotiation with the government to
00:04:44continue. what i can say and
00:04:47i remember very care, very very clearly
00:04:51what the president said, he
00:04:54said, in those countries where you are, there
00:04:58are people whose hands are on the... plow working hard to
00:05:01improve their country's well-being and countries
00:05:05infrastructure and and I think what he asks
00:05:09us to do with our expertise and experience and everything
00:05:12else we have is to walk alongside our
00:05:16colleagues in Nigeria and because already there
00:05:20are very clear policy statements and policy
00:05:24frameworks for that and so by walking
00:05:27alongside our colleagues in Nigeria we will be able
00:05:31to support what's going on, improve
00:05:34welfare, improve their wellbeing and
00:05:37additionally help to bring those tasks and those
00:05:41um those skills that I think perhaps have been have
00:05:45been there been real difficulties in in bringing this across
00:05:49to Nigeria, but there are lots of Nigerian healthcare professionals
00:05:53across the globe who are really excited
00:05:57about the possibility of doing this more
00:06:00consistently rather than doing that a one of sort of
00:06:04one of one of
00:06:05events, well
00:06:09doctor, I mean thank you so much to you and your...
00:06:13That's one sector where um there are those who think that
00:06:16maybe perhaps the government needs to pay more attention to
00:06:20um in terms of uh the money
00:06:24budgeted for the health sector and and all of that
00:06:28but let me even speak to the issues around medical tourism
00:06:32um there was a time in this country where we
00:06:35read that people left the
00:06:38UK and US to come to Nigeria.
00:06:42especially in the university of ibadol, but the reverse is the
00:06:46case for many years down the line, in fact
00:06:50all the presidents of this country, or most the presidents of this
00:06:53country from Tunabu to Buhari have always had to
00:06:57travel uh for medical tourism,
00:07:00um, when you when you see that play
00:07:03out, I'm just wondering, what would it cost us to
00:07:07have the kind of systems in place
00:07:11where? VIPs would be comfortable
00:07:14enough not to travel, but to use our
00:07:18own health care systems here
00:07:22in Nigeria. I think that's a really important
00:07:26point you're making there. Um, I just give you a sense
00:07:29of the quality as well
00:07:33as the expertise of Nigerians across the
00:07:37globe. Um, but and also the increasing
00:07:41expertise. and the and and what you have in Nigeria
00:07:45and again thinking around the structures that are being put in
00:07:48place within the Nigerian setting, and as you say
00:07:52that, I know for example that there
00:07:56are people from other countries who are not coming to Nigeria for
00:08:00care, super specialist
00:08:03care, so just talk about um
00:08:06about things like the sort of things we
00:08:09did during the course the... national diaspora
00:08:13week and one of our colleague our colleagues from
00:08:17Australia what they did was to use
00:08:20ultrasonography to try and understand the condition called
00:08:24endometriosis to diagnose that prior to this will
00:08:28have been having to do that by a surgery and they
00:08:32also training radiologists and other clinicians about
00:08:36laparoscopic techniques and I know
00:08:40also that during this period there were colleagues from South
00:08:44Africa who did one the very
00:08:46first um procedures
00:08:50using interventional radiology to manage
00:08:53intrauterine fibroids so rather than having a really big
00:08:57operation and you able to simply use you
00:09:01interventional radiology to try and
00:09:03embolize fibroids in in the
00:09:07womb and and so and and of course there are many
00:09:10colleagues of ours who are now who do robotic surgery, there are
00:09:14hospitals in Nigeria now that have the equipment
00:09:18and the resources to do those things, I know during the course of our
00:09:22program we visited some the hospitals in Nigeria
00:09:26where there are really some really excellent
00:09:30facilities at sort of cotton edge
00:09:32medicine, lot them led by
00:09:35Nigerians and of course other international
00:09:39people, so so I think that what we want. to do is to
00:09:43harness all these experts, robotics surgeons,
00:09:47laboratory surgeons and pediatricians,
00:09:50neonatal pediatricians, obstatricians, you do name
00:09:54it, I think across the globe, Nigerians are there working
00:09:58at very high level, setting up those policies, setting up those
00:10:02clinical guidelines,
00:10:04and therefore there's no reason with certainly with the
00:10:08um, with the with the infrastructure we now have in Nigeria where we can't
00:10:12not continue to push this, just to say something
00:10:16around the framework for this, and we obviously have the
00:10:20health workforce migration policy which was signed by the president
00:10:23in 2024. and a
00:10:26specific sort of practice
00:10:30framework for that is what the medical and dental council
00:10:34of nigeria termed scaling
00:10:38strengthening collaboration and advancing clinical excellence,
00:10:42so that's a framework that the horrible minister of state for health launched
00:10:46in 2025 in London,
00:10:49so what I want to say to colleagues is that the
00:10:53era of reverse. tourism is one aspect
00:10:57the wider healthcare engagement, but actually we
00:11:01want to think not only reverse tourism, but the individual patients,
00:11:05the Nigerian patients as a whole, and making sure that the healthcare
00:11:09infrastructure is there for them. Whilst tourism brings
00:11:13in more money, I support, I suppose, but what of obs
00:11:16absolutely is important is that the health care of our
00:11:20colleagues, of our citizens are are the best they can
00:11:23be, and we have the... infrastructure to do that, not only with colleagues
00:11:27who are resident in Nigeria doing extremely hard work, but
00:11:31obviously leveraging and harnessing all those doctors and
00:11:35healthcare professionals that are all in the diaspora, and
00:11:39I think that it's bringing that forward that I think is
00:11:43what the key, I think that was the plea that the president uh
00:11:46meets when he met us two weeks ago, and I think what's
00:11:50what's what you have there is they've set out the
00:11:54framework. 'we've got the regulatory guidelines for
00:11:57that, we've got lots of hospitals who and and
00:12:01facilities that are there to take that forward and what we now want
00:12:05to do is to continue to do that consistently and to
00:12:08measure the impact we're having across the country.
00:12:12i just give you one example, sorry, you can land on that so i can throw in my
00:12:16question, well just give you one example, and one
00:12:20the key things that we know nigeria has struggled with
00:12:24is maternal and neonatal debts.
00:12:27Nigeria has the highest maternal and neonatal debts if not in
00:12:31in around the world, if not in in Africa. And so what
00:12:35we did from the UK, ourselves and our
00:12:39national meditry colleagues is to develop a whole new way of
00:12:43training staff and so we trained in the Northwest sector,
00:12:46northwest zone, we trained
00:12:50about about 80 or 90 people, and what they are going
00:12:54to do is to them to... cascade that training on how they
00:12:57would how they can improve care for mothers and babies,
00:13:01we are looking at the sort of things that cost mothers to die,
00:13:05maternal hemorage and poor breathing at the time they are
00:13:08born, but also working as multidisciplinary team,
00:13:12so what you have there is beginnings to change the
00:13:16culture within within the within the system so that
00:13:20everybody can work together as as a group
00:13:24and perhaps looking and making sure we are bringing everybody together
00:13:28rather than thinking there has
00:13:29to be a hierarchy, because is that multidisciplinary
00:13:33team that actually makes it possible for
00:13:37everybody to be used, everybody's skill set to be used
00:13:40in a way that benefits the patient, so yes we want to
00:13:44doctor, yes yeah, as we going to wind out
00:13:48mobility of labor is the mobility of labor is one of our biggest
00:13:52problem, that's why we have these doctors going abroad. so we're we're in deficit
00:13:56in terms the capacity uh numerical capacity that we
00:14:00require for our country, maybe we're doing a thous to 4,00, 1
00:14:03to 4,00 or one to 5,000 as against the global standard of maybe one to
00:14:071ous or one to one or 1,600,
00:14:11mean doctor to patient ratio, yes, but
00:14:15there's a lot of attention on the federal government and sometimes we do
00:14:18not uh look at the subnationals as much as we should, so
00:14:22let's take that opportunity, you met with the... president, but what about the
00:14:26conversation at the subnational level, because that's where the real impact
00:14:30happens, the federal government is one big institution,
00:14:33you know, but the subnationals, we have the words, which
00:14:37are components of local government areas and then the larger one
00:14:40the state level, we have all these state governors building, the
00:14:44president was even not happy the other day, say you're building flyovers in low
00:14:48traffic areas, so for instance now my state at quibum state, the
00:14:52former governor had built one very mega hospital. so I don't know the state of that
00:14:56hospital, but I don't think it's
00:14:58in as the shape it used to be, the current governor for instance now is
00:15:01building another mega, if it if he follows through with this, it's going to be the
00:15:05best hospital in terms of all the things that have been put there in Nigeria
00:15:09built uh by this by state government, but these are mega
00:15:13mega things, how many people will be able to afford the
00:15:17services that those hospitals will will give them, so let's talk
00:15:20about how to make healthcare
00:15:23affordable and accessible and efficient as well as
00:15:27effective for the local
00:15:31people, who can't afford
00:15:33the big moneies that these hospitals have been built will definitely
00:15:37charge. and it's
00:15:41a great question because it then looks at the wider the wider
00:15:44debate around um around around um
00:15:48around healthcare funding and that again is
00:15:52something that every country wrestles with. think in your your
00:15:56question there were a couple of things there. one
00:15:59was health worker migration
00:16:02and and and suppose what are the drivers, the push factors
00:16:06and the p factors for hell worker migration across
00:16:10across the country and so
00:16:13internationally and I think that's where the health
00:16:17worker migration policy has come in
00:16:21which recognizes the individuals
00:16:24aspirations for his own profesional development, but at the same
00:16:28time hunting those of us in the
00:16:31pasporad the country and look at ways in
00:16:34which we can contribute. in however way we
00:16:38can, expertise to Nigeria, so there have been
00:16:42two,
00:16:44and I think a win win in term respects in terms of that that approach.
00:16:48I talked about the scale program, which is
00:16:51relationship between the institutions of Nigeria as
00:16:55well as institution the UK, because what you want to do is to make
00:16:59sure that everything that is done is based on
00:17:03institutions rather than individuals, individuals can do things, but the...
00:17:07impact is not as much, but when institutions are working, then
00:17:11actually the impact is much bigger, and so
00:17:15within that you got scale like I talked about, and
00:17:18increasingly the federal ministry of health has just launched
00:17:22a portal called the Nid
00:17:26P, Nigerian in Diaspora Advanced Healthcare
00:17:29portal, and what that portal is there is to do is to
00:17:33ask any diaspora professional or organization,
00:17:38to express interest in what they want to do, and that
00:17:41portal can match you to areas of need. I think it's really
00:17:45important that as much, as much as possible, we
00:17:49tend to have to work within those sorts of
00:17:53systems. Now, you're right that the federal
00:17:57government is sort of one big organization, but
00:18:01health is very much a sub-federal a
00:18:04subfederal provision, and I you talked there. about some the
00:18:08hospitals that state governors and institutions are building,
00:18:12particularly to look after the healthcare needs their state, so
00:18:16absolutely
00:18:17and we will clearly support that and I think that and of course
00:18:21again at local government level there are also measures in in
00:18:25that space, when you are in the diaspora and you want to
00:18:28make impact, it's really important that all those layers of states
00:18:32and do do align, and one the good good
00:18:36things that really... came out the event that happened in
00:18:40diaspora week was that the agencies of state were aligned
00:18:43in doing things, so there is nothing stopping federal
00:18:47government to set out a framework and then for
00:18:51the state and local government to key into those frameworks, so for
00:18:55example for this mega hospital being built in
00:18:58aqua, bomb, it may be that um the the that
00:19:02hospital wants to do robotic surgery or it may want to do, i don't know
00:19:06laparoscopic surgery. and there's no reason why that's
00:19:10that government or that governor cannot reach out to
00:19:14this portal and say who are those in the diaspora would they have those
00:19:18skill sets and in then from there those people can then be
00:19:21supported to to provide that support that that that
00:19:25skill set in that hospital yes you can have a big hospital
00:19:29but if you don't have the skill set in that hospital and the
00:19:32governance then actually it doesn't it doesn't work so
00:19:36well when it comes to, when it comes to
00:19:40funding, in the UK, we have national
00:19:43health service, it is free at the point of use, there
00:19:47been lots of conversations around national health insurance
00:19:51scheme, national health insurance agency,
00:19:54and I think that that could be one way in which we can
00:19:57really work to to,
00:20:00you know, do that, do lot more with that, include the
00:20:03diaspora expertise, how do we contribute?
00:20:07how do we participate in the health health insurance schemes such
00:20:11that we can reach out to to our to patients in
00:20:14Nigeria, so so I think I think those conversations are
00:20:18live at the moment with WHO as well as
00:20:22NHIA as well as the Federal Ministry of Health to work
00:20:26out how do you bring in diaspora expertise
00:20:29working alongside colleagues to make sure that healthcare
00:20:33is is as much as possible uh reach out to everybody
00:20:37down the world level, well it's a fine place
00:20:41to anchor conversation with you, this are dr.
00:20:44g4 is go for menakaya is
00:20:48the president medical association of Nigerians
00:20:52across Great Britain is also a consultant
00:20:55neonatal pediatrician, thank you indeed for your
00:20:58insights on the program, thank you so much
00:21:02for having me, thank you, I'm so grateful, thank
00:21:20video of woman jumping into the lagoon near Idumot
00:21:24Catter Bridge, that's uh, if you if you go to the
00:21:27island and you're not using the Lagos third
00:21:31mainland bridge, but she was rescued by local boat operators,
00:21:35so we don't know the full story, the intention, but we
00:21:38understand she jumped into the lagoon uh, we really don't know what
00:21:42the full story is, but it will be nice to know
00:21:45what it is, but um, maybe she wanted to commit
00:21:48suicide, we don't. but i guess maybe life's
00:21:52challenges or health challenge it could be one of those things
00:21:56uh
00:21:56but you know we want to admonish Nigerians that yes
00:22:00things are very challenging which is why when we tell government things are challenging but you must
00:22:04do your best yeah to keep hope alive to keep faith
00:22:08alife pray to your god believe work hard and see how it plays
00:22:12out but we must commend the persons able to be quick
00:22:15in their response to rescue her uh when
00:22:19she's something to that river, but kelly
00:22:21we need to find out exactly what the reason is from government, hope, hope the legost
00:22:25government through this, it's very painful to see
00:22:29that you know someone will just jump into so the only two reasons,
00:22:33the only two reasons that comes to mind, health issue
00:22:37or just social issue economic issue that just bites hard and you're
00:22:42just like end
00:22:42let's this anymore, but um
00:22:46we we we wish her the very best, wish are quick recovery. second
00:22:50chance, so don't give up, so please don't give up, uh, renew your
00:22:53hope, you're not sounding like
00:22:56president, but let's just guess serious
00:23:00issue
00:24:25this is Nigeria Alex uh in Nigeria we believe in hard work so I mean you must
00:24:29have made your moneies but we want to ensure that you do not forget the
00:24:33values with you got when you were
00:24:35here
00:24:39but I mean I mean for I sometimes we have to do these
00:24:43things for the love of country for the love of country so
00:24:46Alex um we don't have a perfect system we are.
00:24:50hoping thriving and pray that we get there someday uh,
00:24:54but I mean God has blessed you, so please just be
00:24:56grateful. well, I, I just, I just wish austin,
00:25:00our colleagues in London will be able to will be the one to talk about
00:25:04what Alex is talking about, because un doesn't have very nice words
00:25:08for the NFF, in fact when you hear him talk about the
00:25:11administrators of our football, it feels like some the persons are there
00:25:15just there to just waste our time, not really interested in the game
00:25:19uh but this is fallout of when those kinds of
00:25:23leadership exists within our football body, which is that look,
00:25:27i i sometimes believe that when i just playing football whether it's a continental or
00:25:31the global level, even these evil bandits used to relax
00:25:34to that units nigerians, they only that's why i love football, if
00:25:38you want to know why i love football as far as national team is concerned
00:25:42is the reason why that's the only moment yeah nigeria can never nobody
00:25:46talks religion nobody talks politics nobody nobody cares
00:25:51'm our sense of patriotism comes alive and these are the gentlemen
00:25:54and the ladies who give us that moment of pride, the least we can
00:25:58do is to give them the best of treatment so that when you go to podcast'.
00:26:02We
00:26:26know what's happening across Nigeria's various regions and channels
00:26:30tell.
00:26:36"you've seen the news, you've heard their stories, as I see
00:26:39the road up too much, I told my family to just go out, the climate
00:26:43crisis is here and getting much closer,
00:26:46rice, the jaws
00:26:48dry, so let's look at the
00:26:52solutions and the way forward at these times on earth
00:26:56f."
00:30:37we'll start from what's going on in the global oil space, this morning we saw
00:30:40that oil prices steadied after steep falls in previous
00:30:44two trading sessions, investors are waiting to see if
00:30:48efforts to end the US Iran war, which we know oman
00:30:52has interven, if that will restore traffic through the
00:30:55blockade straight of homose, if that mean progress
00:30:59today.