Raise Doctors’ Remuneration to Attract Investments in Health Sector, FMC MD Tells FG

James Sowole in Abeokuta

The Medical Director of the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Abeokuta, Ogun State, Prof. Adewale Musa-Olomu, has said that government’s increased investment in health sector, especially efforts towards increasing production of medical services personnel, cannot yield results unless health services professionals are well remunerated.

Musa-Olomu said the current brain drain in the health sector, popularly known as “Japa” would continue until welfare of professionals are well taken care of by the government.

The Medical Director who is rounding up his eight-year tenure as the chief executive of the hospital, made the assertion in Abeokuta, Ogun State, while addressing journalists on his eight years of stewardship on the health institution.

He said the ratio of doctor to patients, would continue to wide because of the brain drain in the industry.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) had in a 2025 research, estimated that Nigeria has a doctor-to-patient ratio of approximately 1:9,083, meaning that there is a severe shortage of doctors in the country. 

Although the WHO recommended ratio of doctor-to-patient is 1:600, the medical director, commended the federal government investment in the health sector, including the setting up of the Federal University of Medical Sciences in Abeokuta. 

He noted that for the country to harness the full potential of its home grown trained medical practitioners, the federal government must also ensure adequate salary structure, in tandem with world best practices is put in place.

He said, “The problem we had was that they have condemned medical services to nothing in this country, though, government is really taking the measures. 

“They are increasing admission into medical schools, building pharmacies, laboratories. Those things are increasing, not that they are reducing the numbers of doctors, relocating to US, UK and Europe. 

“Let them also give us the incentives that we deserve. Give us the salaries that we deserve as the colonial masters were doing in those days when they treated us as number two immediately after the Governor General, then doctors will stay. 

“You can imagine in this hospital, my doctors separated cancer from the nerves, from the bones and the patients live again, what are they doing in US, what are they doing in UK. 

“We are also doing a lot here at the FMC Abeokuta. But what is the salary of those doctors, around N700,000 and N800,000 per month. What are they going to do with that and you say they shouldn’t go to where they will be paid about 10 million Naira per month so that they will be able to take care of their wives and children. 

“Many of them have children abroad that they cannot afford to pay their bills. How will they be thinking of these social problems and say they want to take care of somebody’s health. They have to take care of themselves too.

“Fine, they have invested a lot to the health sector, yes, they are training pharmacists doctors, but they should make sure that their incentives and salaries are paid so that we can stay back and do the necessary things.”

Reeling the achievements of the FMC Abeokuta since he came on board, Musa-Olomu said that the hospital accounted about 30 per cent of the total number of open-heart surgeries, carried out in the entire Nigeria.

The Medical Director boasted that with achievements recorded in the hospital in recent years, FMC Abeokuta, is not a glorified general hospital but a truly tertiary health institution

Musa-Olomu expressed delight that he is leaving the medical centre, better than he met it eight years ago.

He said the achievements of the medical centre, were not only in terms of physical projects like buildings, but also included essential medical equipment that befits status of a truly tertiary institution as well as human resources.

He said the hospital’s Radiology Department had nothing when he resumed as the MD as the department has no single x-ray machine but the hospital today can boast of CT Scan machine, MRI machine and other sensitive medical equipment and facilities, that  places the hospital above some teaching hospitals that had been in existence before it.

According to him, one of the major achievements of his administration, was transforming of the centre to a Teaching Hospital status of Federal University of Medicine and Medical Sciences, Abeokuta, which was also his idea, when he came on board.

He said with the establishment of the Federal University of Medicine, Abeokuta has regained what it lost 76 years ago.

Musa-Olomu added that with the feat achieved by the hospital, SERVICOM rated FMC Abeokuta as the best FMC in Nigeria.

While attributing the achievements of the administration to the commitment of the workers in the hospital, Musa- Olomu said the administration took the welfare of the workers as a priority, despite stiff opposition that he faced when he resumed in 2017.