President Tinubu is appealing to Nigerian medical professionals in the diaspora to return home and help build the country, citing “nowhere is like home” and referencing his own journey.
The sentiment is right. The timing is painful.
Nigeria loses an estimated one thousand plus doctors and nurses every year. Not because they don’t love home. Because home doesn’t love them back. They leave for salaries that can pay rent, hospitals with light and oxygen, and systems where a doctor isn’t also a pharmacist, cleaner, and security guard.
Now we’re asking them to return. To what exactly? To facilities without reagents? To 72-hour call duties? To salaries eroded by inflation while patients pay out-of-pocket?
And then there’s the elephant in the room: the “tinubu US dollars forfeiture” issue that keeps resurfacing in public discourse. When the messenger’s credibility is questioned over transparency and accountability, calls for sacrifice ring hollow. People don’t just hear “come home.” They hear “come home to a system we refuse to fix.”
Diaspora doctors want to contribute. Many already do through telemedicine, donations, and training. But relocation requires trust.
So if the appeal is serious, back it with policy: pay living wages, insure health workers, equip hospitals, secure them, and prosecute those who loot the health budget. Make “home” functional first.
Patriotism is not a retention strategy.
Until we build a health system worth returning to, “nowhere like home” will remain a slogan, not a solution.
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