I recently visited Nigeria for a holiday. A neighbor and a clergy paid me a visit to discuss ‘things spiritual.’ After the preliminary greetings my wife enquired how our guest’s madam was. He replied: “Ah, she retired from her post as matron of a government hospital and has gone to work in London. These days it is women rather than men who venture far to look for work. She simply retired but not tired”
I forgot about this matter for a while until sometimes later when reading one of the Nigeria weekly magazines. My eyes caught a rare article in this paper entitled: “Nigeria Nurses and Doctors find Greener Pasture in Britain"
In that report it was mentioned how many Nigerian hospitals lack adequate staff, not so much because the training of nurses and doctors in Nigeria has remained inadequate, but because those that have qualified have left our shores to seek better pay abroad and good working conditions.
Since 2000, Nigeria has lost thousand of her nurses, doctors and other experienced workers both in health and other sectors to developed countries across the world. Even Prime Minister Blair acknowledges this scenario: “One of the poorest nations has lost nine percent of all its nurses in the past two years with 82 % going to Britain.”
I guess Mr. Blair was referring to Nigeria. It is not just nurses and doctors, academicians have left Nigeria for countries that offer them better compensation than they get at home. These professionals want to earn enough money and save while they are still young and energetic.
Nigeria has been an exporter of manpower since the dawn of the 20th Century. All the countries to which Nigeria jobseekers went in droves like Liberia, Botswana, and South Africa are economically more developed though they too at the moment are battling with the brain drain.
A Nigerian recently lamented: “Instead of the British taking our nurses why don’t they give us support required to improve working conditions here.” Though one may not be very sure of the type of the support he may be referring to. It is a futile venture for anyone to rely on improvement and development of the Nigeria from outside.
A country sets agenda for its development, pursue that to a logical conclusion and not that foreign countries simply drive in development. President Bush said during the Leon Sullivan Summit in Nigeria that the solution to Africa problem lies within and the peoples of Africa will build their own future of hope.
That future lies in everyone’s hand. Many people, in and out of Africa, are quick to blame colonization for the present predicament. But Africa is not unique in the wave of colonization that once swept across the world. Many countries that were once colonized are today enjoying economic prosperity.
For instance, Australia, Canada and New Zealand were both British colonies. Estonia was once under Russian and later German control. What is so unique about these countries is they were able to undertake reforms and created a market oriented economies after the col! onialist left and build an effective institutions which support development and investment.
Britain has ‘subsidised’ Nigeria since 1960 more than when it was a British protectorate. British colonial policy was that each colony should pay its way instead of being a drain on the Exchequer. Millions of British pounds which translated into billion of Naira have entered Nigeria since the independence and yet Nigeria remains poor and unattractive to some of its own trained professionals. We cannot blame those who emigrate to seek greener pastures. What we can only do is to remind them of the facts of economic history, there and here.
Going to a prosperous country offers only a temporary solution. Economic conditions never remain the same anywhere. Nigerians are no longer being enticed to go and work in Zimbabwe and South Africa because those countries are no longer as prosperous as they used to. Time was when Ghana was so prosperous from its cocoa exports and Gold that people from neighboring countries went there in thousands seeking to work.
When the cocoa price and its Gold reserves diminished Prime Minister Kofi Busia ordered foreign workers to pack up and leave the dwindling job market to the nationals. That did not quite solve unemployment in Ghana. Some Ghanaians went to work in Nigeria where oil wells needed more labor than could be supplied locally. But there came a time when the Nigerian government had to deport most foreign workers to reserve jobs for Nigerians.
In recent economic history perhaps no two countries have made such miraculous economic turn-rounds as Germany and Japan. Years ago in Germany the term “guest workers” was a common word for greener pasture seekers, for it was a prosperous part of Europe. Nowadays The Economist continuously refer to Germany as the sick man of Europe, the epithet that one applied to Britain in pre-Thatcherite days.
The solution to brain-drain is not far fetched. Everywhere in the world, people respond to incentives. When people engage in one form of employment, it is not that they are working there for working sake. They simply respond to opportunities to develop, to advance their careers and meet the costs of the children education and above all live a decent life than their predecessors.
A country’s development remains elusive in the absence of effective institutions, the rule of law, where government still meddle with the economy and lack of adequate protection of property. For instance, the freedom that democracy gives is sometimes abused by people who turn that freedom into the license to frustrate honest endeavors to bring about desirable changes.
My experience in life has taught me that success is never accidental. Despite the commitment of the present administration to introduce reforms, figure shows less then 10% of his officials actually support his reforms agenda. For Nigeria to remain vibrant and keep his productive people at home, the solution does not reside with other governments dolling out fund.
It simply requires government should rule justly, espouse the rule of law and protect property rights, reduce the bureaucratic bottleneck for people to register their business and titles, harmonize various tax regimes, reduce excessive government intervention in the economy and create a well-functioning market-oriented economy. We would never remain the same if we can just do this.
Dr. Odesola, a Development and HIV/AIDS activist, contributes this piece from Lusaka, Zambia