Brain Drain : Nigerian Doctors

37 views
Skip to first unread message

Cornelius Hamelberg

unread,
Aug 28, 2021, 6:46:28 PM8/28/21
to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com

Ashafa Abdullahi

unread,
Aug 29, 2021, 3:44:03 PM8/29/21
to usaafricadialogue
NIGERIAN DOCTORS IN SSUDI ARABIA: HYPOCRISY AT ITS PEAK

It doesn't matter anymore to the Nigerian non-Muslim doctors who are aspiring to work in Saudi that they might get Islamised in the country where:

-  Shari'ah is their only form of constitution. 

-  the females among them who are lucky to get the job would be "forced" to use the "hijab" or at least cover her head.

-  they behead people for indulging in drugs trafficking.

-  the punishment for rape is probably death. 

-  public display of affection/love is illegal.

 -  their currencies is laden with lots of Arabic writings and inscriptions with pictures of their leaders dressed in full "islamic" regalia with turbans of many turns. 

-  they wouldn't be able to practice their religion openly as there is no single church (to my the best of my knowledge) in the kingdom. 

-  the two most holy cities in the Islamic world (Makkah and Medinah) are situated and being managed by the government.

- Saudi is a country they so despised that they never speak good of it. They even accused the kingdom of being the chief sponsorer of terrorism across the globe. 

- this is a country that doesn't recognize or celebrates Christmas neither does it implant big Christmas trees as decoration as opposed to what is obtained in some other Muslim countries. 

Despite all these glaring "radical and barbaric" Islamic practices (according to them) being carried out by Saudi Arabia which could have ordinarily invoked their anger and animosity towards the kingdom, they now lose their voices and become mute all because they had found where they will feed their greedy stomach and unending taste for good life. 

Whereas in our dear Nigeria, they are always ready to fiercely attack anything related to Islam even as that poses no threat to their physical or spiritual existence. You hear them shout at top of their voice; "Islamic agenda" at any measure taken by the president which they consider a threat to their belief system. They speak violently against any modicum of Islamic affair in the country as if every cry is against them. 

But here they are, joyfully applying for jobs in a country that openly upholds and applies strict Sharia law which they had hitherto condemned and hated the Muslims for it in Nigeria. 

The funny comment I read from one of them while trying to justify their working in Saudi Arabia is that saudi is practicing "peaceful Islam (lol)". Their hypocrisy stinks. All because of money. 

It goes to show that their biases and hatred for Islam and the Muslims in this country is not out of genuine reason or fear of them being islamised, but because of their corrupted state of mind largely caused by poverty and their greediness to be in charge of the affairs of the country. 

My prayer for them is that they see the beauty of the culture  of the people and their faith while working over there and accept to be tolerant and replicate it on return accordingly. 

On Sat, 28 Aug 2021, 23:46 Cornelius Hamelberg, <cornelius...@gmail.com> wrote:

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAFYPD-Q8RSv6o%2B4pygsfMJf3UiPuroY8G1XAL8fGjWTF5RhNoA%40mail.gmail.com.

Cornelius Hamelberg

unread,
Aug 29, 2021, 8:38:56 PM8/29/21
to USA Africa Dialogue Series

Dear Sir,

That was some heavy punching from you. You punch very hard. I don't agree with everything you say but this is something we don't need to quarrel about. The doctors' strike for better conditions of service has been going on for a while – it started while President Buhari was away in London where the medical grass is greener than in Nigeria; which does not mean to say that the brain-drain from Nigeria, in the health sector, or indeed any other much need manpower requirement sector, cannot be said to be to the home country's advantage. So, at base – where is your patriotism in the country's hour of need, would be a legitimate question for those who are now being branded with the dishonour of more or less violating the the Hippocratic Oath, not to mention their violating / dishonouring the general spirit of the National Service commitment to Mother Nigeria, replacing that commitment with the dishonourable idea of deserting what they paint as a sinking ship named Nigeria, at a time when the motto from the commander-in-chief should be ringing loud and clear in their ears: “All hands on deck, please !”

At the same time, with all due respect, what seems to be your so hastily assembled, questionable points of attack aimed at bludgeoning your defenceless victims into submission – the first worrying question is, what is the statistical basis of your so sweeping, generalised accusations of hypocrisy at the heart of their intention to relocate to Saudi Arabia where they are being offered employment, with generous terms of service that has succeeded in enticing them away from home, from Nigeria where they themselves I'm sure would most readily agree with us is where they are most needed, now and in the foreseeable future.

But what is the statistical basis of your sweeping, generalised accusations? When you refer to them as “ they” , how many of “ them “ do you have in mind? All of them? Who – which ones among them? Are there no Nigerian Muslim doctors among them ( the applicants in Abuja)?

I hope he doesn't mind my using him as my example, but my school friend Dr. Montgomery Harding (great cricketer, and as Christian as they come - at least up to the time he visited me in Stockholm and returned to his Liverpool Medical School to complete his medical studies after which he worked in Saudi Arabia for many years. I have other Sierra Leonean fiends in the medical profession who also worked and are working under Sharia Law in Saudi Arabia. It's easy: when in Rome, do as the Romans

Conversely, during the oil boom years there were many from India - serving under a President Shagari ( of the same faith as India's good friend, the President of Pakistan.....if you see what I mean, they were in search of the $ Dollar Akbar, Sure, labor omnia vincit and the love of $$$ conquers all difficulties, obstacles, resistance and sometimes it is that love that is meant when they say omnia vincit amor :  that the the love of Dollar Akbar conquers at least some difficulties.

Neither you nor I know all the people that you are accusing of being hypocrites etc., and maybe “hypocrisy” is not uniformly true of all of them - and of course, I suppose that some of them will telly you that there is no hypocrisy in the love of money or in saying the Lord's Prayer - “ Give us this day our daily bread – alhamdulillah !

Perchance – and inevitably some of the missionary boys and girls could embrace Islam , and be the better off for it – may even get a petro-dollar raise in salary and return to Nigeria saying “Allahu Akbar! “ at the very least, they will not return untransformed by their service to the people of Saudi Arabia and they could even follow in the footsteps of Leopold Weiss who became Muhammad Asad - wrote his very impressive story “ The Road to Mecca” was later on, appointed Pakistan's ambassador to the United Nations and to crown it all even translated the Holy Quran into English - al hamdulillah !

Some of the missionary sisters could be inspired by e.g., Maryam Jameelah

Biko Agozino

unread,
Aug 29, 2021, 9:17:52 PM8/29/21
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com

Cornelius Hamelberg

unread,
Aug 29, 2021, 10:02:34 PM8/29/21
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Dr Agozino,

What's your verdict on the proposition/ submission that from Brer Buhari's point of view and maybe, from sheer necessity, the mother of invention ( creation?), Mr President was away in London where the medical grass is greener than in Nigeria? 

Virus-free. www.avast.com

You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/topic/usaafricadialogue/JnvG_RXQQkw/unsubscribe.
To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/237197982.602320.1630285303202%40mail.yahoo.com.

Virus-free. www.avast.com

Biko Agozino

unread,
Aug 30, 2021, 6:43:46 AM8/30/21
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Mr. President is welcome to Eliza's country or anywhere else anytime for medical check ups so long as he does so on his own dime. If Nigerians are made to foot the bill, the parking fees of Air Force 1 and all, Nigerians deserve to know how much it is costing them and what exactly is ailing him that Nigerian doctors who are being scrambled for by Eliza and by King of Arabia cannot treat in Aso Villa clinic.

Biko

Oluwatoyin Adepoju

unread,
Aug 30, 2021, 6:44:49 AM8/30/21
to usaafricadialogue
A response to Ashafa's comment-

How does he know the views of the non-Muslim  Southern Nigerian docs going to work in Saudi?

He does not know but being Southerners he assumes they must hate Islam and Nigeria's Muslim North.

These doctors are migrating in the midst of a national strike for better working conditions.

Is the strike carried out by non-Muslim Southern doctors alone?

I don't think so but such issues are of no concern to Ashaffa.

Is medical care better in the Muslim  North than in the South?

What is the comparative educational level between the Muslim North and the South, suggesting the question of how many doctors there are in the Mislim North per citizen compared to the South?

Is it it true that the universities in Nigeria's SW alone are more than those in the entire Muslim North, a gap made more striking by the huge size of the North and the recurrent claims of it's population size, claims that play a large role in elections?

In the light of these questions, are issues of improved medical care not even more dire in the Muslim North than in the South, evoking the need to be more sensitive to the national health crisis and it's implications?

This crisis is exercerbated by the conduct of the President, a person elected on the basis of anti-corruption and ending Boko Haram Islamic terrorism.

This same President has spent a good part of his time in office living in UK hospitals, taking care of himself with Nigeria's money.

When his son had an accident, I understand he was flown to the West for treatment.

I recall, perhaps accurately, that there was once an outcry that the Aso Rock clinic, the clinic in the Presidential Villa, had a larger share of the health budget than any other hospital in the nation.

Yet, this President does not use that facility but must burn foreign exchange even as the value of the Nigerian currency is very low.


I also recall, perhaps accurately, that even the President's wife and/ or children have cried out publicly that there is no evidence in the Aso Rock Clinic of the huge monies allocated to it.

Are these the issues of value rather than imagined views of what the migrating  non-Muslim Southern Nigerian doctors think of Islam?

Ashafa uses the migrating doctors as exemplifying Southern Nigerians' rabid quest to rule Nigeria.

This President who makes nonsense of the plight of doctors, nurses, other health care workers and the Nigerian medical sysyem as a whole by his total commitment to the UK medical system at huge cost to Nigeria's  monies, is a person from Nigeria's Muslim North who became President beceause Southern political, intellectual and civil society elite directly and indirectly presented him as a cure to the nation's problems, enabling his electoral reach to go beyond the Muslim North, the constituency to which his appeal  had been confined in his multiple  earlier unsuccessful  efforts to become President. 

On reaching the throne, he became deeply ethno-religious in his govt, eventually plunging the nation into a terrorist crisis run by supremacists from his Fulani ethnicity, a crisis blazing nationwide, with the kidnapping arm of the terrorist crisis being particularly ferocious in his native Muslim North even  as a resurgent Boko Haram has made itself into the sole govt in part of that region.


I'm the midst of these self evident horrors, someone is viewing the ongoing national tragedy in the health sector as Nigerian doctors migrate to Saudi through the lens of what he imagines the migrating doctors think about Islam and the Muslim North.

Thanks

Toyin







Cornelius Hamelberg

unread,
Aug 30, 2021, 5:42:48 PM8/30/21
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com

Extravaganza.

If the emigration of Nigerian doctors continue at this rate, soon, there won't be any doctors left in Nigeria. The situation is equally precarious in Afghanistan. Way back, circa 2003 I worked with fifteen doctors from Afghanistan ( teaching them more English) here in Stockholm - 14 Sunnis and one Shia, and needless to say, even then they would have been more useful in Afghanistan than in Sweden...

In the seventies of the last century, many Gulf Arabs betook themselves to Bombay, now Mumbai, India, to obtain affordable medical treatment and at the same time to look for some suitable, female domestic servants. I wonder if it has come to the point where Petro-dollars Gulf Arabs now travel to Nigeria on the same mission, whilst Nigeria's president knows full-well that short of a miracle, the best medical treatment that he will ever get in his own lifetime is available in London, England, Alhamdulillah.

As to Biko's concern about the prezo not footing the bill of his costly travels for medical care with his own dimes and dollars, I'd say that Mr. President's continued good health is a national concern, not just a personal one for the Buhari family. Secondly, where is your sympathy for “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.”?

The sensitive matter of submitting himself to the care of local doctors also raises serious security issues. ( A Sierra Leonean surgeon ( not Monty Harding) told me personally ( face to face) back in 1972, that if he ever got hold of Sierra Leone's then President Siaka Stevens on the operating table, “The Pa would discover the meaning of pain!” At the very moment that this surgeon was telling me this, his mother was the Pa's “girlfriend”/ “ Sweetheart” and therefore, possibly, there was a bit of the Oedipus complex operating there. So there's always that kind of question polluting the air or ruining your sleep if you are president: “Who can I trust?” Sometimes not even ”the wife” - and certainly not her boyfriend...

This very topical issue of Saudi Arabia recruiting Nigerian doctors is raising eyebrows everywhere. For those who question “what good can come out Nazareth”, who don't think so highly of Nigerian doctors when it comes to their home-grown / made-in-Nigeria quality, their work environment, their lack of acquaintance or experience with the latest, advanced medical equipment etc., a disturbing question from concerned Saudi citizens could be, “Can't we recruit much better quality doctors from the USA, UK, Switzerland, Poland, Germany, Sweden?”

The fact is that they have already recruited quality doctors from all the places where the best doctors are being produced, and Nigerian doctors will probably be consigned to treating the lower echelons of the imported Saudi workforce from the Philippines and similar places from where people, just like some of the Christianized Nigerians probably don't have to be fluent in the Arabic Language in order to work as doctors in Saudi Arabia. Whether Christian or not, I suppose that whether they like it or not, Nigerian doctors that pass the litmus recruitment test will have to learn/be taught elementary courtesies such as greeting their employers with“As-salamu alaykum” - no hypocrisy in doing so, and in the circumstances even more polite and ingratiating, As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu, suitably in tune with the Devil's Dictionary meaning of ABASEMENT , n. A decent and customary mental attitude in the presence of wealth or power. Peculiarly appropriate in an employee when addressing an employer.

But, nota bene, the word for “God” in Arabic, is Allah!

I suppose that for perplexity, the incongruity of the Nigerian doctors' recruitment would have only been exceeded by the breaking news headline reading “Israel recruiting Nigerian Doctors, in Abuja”( to treat Palestinians of course ) - as that would have only generated another avalanche/ earthquake/ tsunami/ class 5 anti-Semitic Hurricane about not least of all Palestinian rights, not to mention the fear that Nigerian doctors too could carry the deadly delta variant of the Covid 419, especially those coming from the Niger Delta – that and other hypochondriac paranoias.

Still, it would not be a joking matter. However, Professor Agozino has directed our attention to the reality, that even the UK, where the medical grass is greener than the grass in Nigeria, and just because life is precious that's why Nigeria's President and some of the Kings and Queens and other presidents and oil magnates, film stars, millionaires, billionaires, and those who can afford it get theirs medical treatment and medical grass over there. Nor should we have to be reminded that President Buhari is a national asset and his health is wealth is of prime national importance. Some years ago the nation was praying fervently for his recovery and even the Kper-rogueries who diagnose dementia where it does not show any sign of existence should normally know enough Latin to understand the import or wisdom in Mens sana in corpore sano...and in that state of mind to discharge their presidential, professorial, pastoral duties....adequately...

Predictably, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju's hits the tail on its proverbial head, with all the right questions and right answers, ( and with some venom too) but is it fair to attribute the piece The Hypocrisy Of Nigerian Christians: HYPOCRISY AT ITS PEAK ostensibly written by someone else and posted by Ashafa Abdullahi , perhaps to elicit/ provoke some responses, as fairly representative of Ashafa Abdullahi's own views?

Sometimes, the right questions are asked but not all of them are answered satisfactorily, not even by Mr Kant. Hence this wisecrack from Confucius






You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/topic/usaafricadialogue/JnvG_RXQQkw/unsubscribe.
To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAGBtzfP0U4vvx6h8Q1Bamxpa3iz6Ftduf6b1Jo2vCQzzwGKcWQ%40mail.gmail.com.

biko...@yahoo.com

unread,
Aug 30, 2021, 7:50:53 PM8/30/21
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com
I wish the Baba full recovery o. 

But if na me be him, I no go take my tokunbo car back to the same London mechanic after he worked on it for three whole months and it still kept breaking down. Haba, try the spare parts Dot dealers and mechanics for Naijungle now and if that one no work, try prayers, Babalawos, and herbal healers. 

If you keep going back to Eliza land for a common thing like ear ache as alleged by some, then maybe the rumour was true that the original engine knocked and what we received back from the London panel beater na imitation with secondhand spare parts that will need to be continuously patched by the vulcanizer. 

No wahala to treat the health of the national Oga on top with the national wealth but without accountability on the full cost and the exact diagnosis we are paying for, no be 419 be that?

Get well soon, Oga. Peace Unto You. 

Solidarity greetings to Naija doctors willing to provide technical foreign aid to Ezenwanyi Eliza and to Eze ndi Arab. If na you nko?

 Instead of keeping their sharp brain in the drain without gain for their poor families, fund Education for all at all levels to raise more doctors, cut the pay of politicians and pay teachers, doctors, engineers and poor workers more for remaining to serve the masses.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAFYPD-REiA0naD375nR9vUdWq0AwAxvrw-XPhnNzJKpqcLR6SA%40mail.gmail.com.

Cornelius Hamelberg

unread,
Aug 31, 2021, 4:55:48 PM8/31/21
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com


Al-Shafi (The Healer) is one of the 99 names of Allah

Muslim Prayers for healing

We wish the Baba full recovery O!

Prayers also for the doctors, nurses, healers, pharmacists, herbalists, researchers. Let us pray!

Sadly, the best treatment for everything is not available in even the best Nigerian hospitals.

Since it's true that almost everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die, and equally true that “Dead Men Don't Smoke Marijuana” (and that includes the best of the medical marijuana) a good starting point of the President's medical review should be the undeniable: that whoever happens to be The President of Nigeria is not going to allow just anybody to perform his heart or brain operation, no Sir, any normal Mr President would go for the very best treatment available, the very best attention that money can buy even if it's just to increase his chances of survival for a few more years in this vale of tears.

Why should President Buhari be different, or be held to a different standard?

There was all the speculation and propaganda about “Sleepy Joe” Biden, that he was suffering from old age and dementia, but see how wrong they were! Mr Biden persevered and prevailed, especially in Georgia (Jimmy Carter country).

Ditto, Brother Buhari , Citizen Number One, the Big Boss Man of all Nigeria and all Nigerians. Lots of speculation but no certainty about exactly what the medical malady might be and he has the right and the privilege of medical privacy, just as any other citizen, at least here in Sweden.

If it's true that it's an ear problem, we can understand the prezo shuffering from “earache” because of too much noise-pollution from some of the big and the not so big grammar in the strident, anti-Buhari Naija media and all the unholy hullabaloo about the Fulani Herdsmen Brethren.

Still, we can't rule out the possibility that the main issue about the grass ina England being greener than the grass in Nigeria being the reason why Baba keeps on going back to London for more! Going back for maintenance...

I can vouch that Mr President agrees 100% with the contents of your last paragraph.



Virus-free. www.avast.com

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/382204a1-e8b0-441a-9f1d-2adf9af5f0d7%40email.android.com.

Virus-free. www.avast.com
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages