₦airaland Forum

Pastor Poju Oyemade, the Senior Pastor and Founder of The Covenant Nation (TCN), a Ministry headquartered in Lagos has in his sermon yesterday, which has now gone viral, claimed that Nigerian Doctors fleeing the country are ungrateful.

In Nigeria, a person will graduate as a medical doctor and spend N500,000 throughout to become a doctor. In America, you graduate from Johns Hopkins, you graduate from Harvard as a doctor, and you spend $2,000. Are you okay? Do you know how much money you spend?

Nigerians are ungrateful. They will go through everything, education. How much do they spend there? You see a Nigerian, if they tell him in Nigeria to do two jobs, he will curse your life out.

They will come to America, wake up in the morning, do first job, do second job, do Uber, and do, everything he’s doing. I said, if they put the fraction of this energy they put here in their country, they will have blown. - Oyemade

NARD responds

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF RESIDENT DOCTORS RESPONDS TO PASTOR POJU.

Dear @pastorpoju,

With due respect, your recent comments reflect a misunderstanding of the realities surrounding medical education and the healthcare system in Nigeria.

Contrary to your claim, no medical doctor is trained on N500,000. A peer-reviewed study by Osoba et al. (2021), published in the Pan African Medical Journal, estimates the cost of training a doctor in Nigeria to range between $21,000 and $51,000—this includes tuition, living expenses, and other associated costs.

Despite this investment, the average Nigerian doctor earns about N250,000 monthly (roughly $170), a stark contrast to their counterparts in the U.S., where training costs around $275,000, and the average monthly salary is about $16,000 (₦24 million).

For a Nigerian doctor to qualify and practice in the U.S., their family often spends over $10,000 to support the process.

This is not about ingratitude—Nigerian doctors are among the most hardworking and resilient globally. While the health system is in a state of crisis, many citizens cannot afford medical tourism. It is easy for Pastors with access to tithes and offerings to seek care abroad, but their average Nigerian church member cannot. We urge you to speak truth to power and advocate for a better health system; Nigeria currently ranks 142nd out of 195 globally.

As a final note, it may be worth considering the Apostles’ model—focusing on prayer, fasting, and the Word—rather than “serving tables.”

Wishing you a reflective and blessed Easter.

Nice upper cut

Correct response

Mstchewwww

Fatoyinbo went abroad to treat his cancer

.

Hmmm. Uncle Yekini just returned from medical pilgrimage but that 50k USD estimate is extremelyrageous ooooooo.

I dont think Pastor should have made this comment. While he made some points, he either doesn't know or ignored some important factors.

Being angry with the government is not the same as hating your country.

There is also not one Doctor from Nigeria who goes to the US and starts working right away, they have to do courses that last at least I year or more and then take a test. If they fail, they can't practice.

But a Doctor trained in the US can not only automatically start working in Nigeria, they are usually made the Head or at least seen as superior.

The average Nigerian is smart, so when they go abroad, they almost always shine and excel. But our Certificates are not usually respected, no matter your level of graduation, when going to the West, it's either not accepted or one has to do another year or more of training.

I am sure none of the family members of those suffering in Benue right now will agree with Pastor, even if they attend his Fellowship.

Don't mind them

Well, this is not to support Pastor Poju, but no one spends $21,000 to $50,000 becoming a medical Doctor in Nigeria. That is between 30m and 80m!

If that is the real worth, then it simply means it is heavily subsidized by the government.

Tuition fee in all public universities in Nigeria is not yet up to N1m per Academic session. University of Ibadan is not even yet up to 500k.

Medical students use 6 academic session in school. This means averagely, no student spends up to N5m (including miscellaneous)

Yes, it is true that Medical doctors in Nigeria deserve better pay, but so also does the street sweeper, and every other profession in the country. Everyone deserves better pay for their services.

Do u know how much a street sweeper get paid in developed countries? It is over x30 what they earn here. Exactly the same scenerio. The only difference is that one profession is more skilled and sort after in the globe than the other.
But you must not forget you owe your country for training you.

I don't blame the medics for jumping out of the country, I only blame the govermnt who are irresponsible thieves, thus they don't even have the mouth to say and do what they ought to do.

Nice smackdown.Apc is cursed

E don dey evident say the guy handling the resident doctor twitter account don dey kolotoure.

Nowhere in Naija you go see any doctor train for even 3/10 of this amount yearly.

$21k for this same Naija. Make the handler dey fearr Jah with the liees nao.

estimates the cost of training a doctor in Nigeria to range between $21,000 and $51,000—this includes tuition, living expenses, and other associated costs.

This mañ thinks he is smart but rather exposed his warped.

This topic will cause mixed reactions

Nigerians hate the truth and anyone that propagates it. They will rather die in their state of self-deception than being rescued from lying to themselves because they want to hate the people in government

When there is a Gbas, there will be a Gbos

Foolish pastors everywhere

The reason why it seems some are enjoying while some are suffering is because some people still see others that they can "pepper". I wish everyone will be batist, let everyone be apc member, this is my wish for this country.

If Oyemade said these words, then he has disappointed himself and young people that look up to him.


It's okay to be among the less than 15% who are wealthy and privileged in this declining nation...!


But, have the decency and common sense not to talk down on those trying to improve their lives against all odds either within Nigeria or outside Nigeria.


This focus on those relocating from Nigeria is bordering on idiotic...!

Why focus on less than 10% of the population who have lost faith and hope in Nigeria, and have decided to find their fortunes abroad?!!


What about the millions here suffering daily?!! What have you done to make their lives so much better that the few abroad will begin to envy them?!!



Why are we more interested in painting Nigeria as Great rather than actually making the country great?!!



If you have to explain greatness, then it isn't!

fergie001:
Pastor Poju Oyemade, the Senior Pastor and Founder of The Covenant Nation (TCN), a Ministry headquartered in Lagos has in his sermon yesterday, which has now gone viral, claimed that Nigerian Doctors fleeing the country are ungrateful.

In Nigeria, a person will graduate as a medical doctor and spend N500,000 throughout to become a doctor. In America, you graduate from Johns Hopkins, you graduate from Harvard as a doctor, and you spend $2,000. Are you okay? Do you know how much money you spend?

Nigerians are ungrateful. They will go through everything, education. How much do they spend there? You see a Nigerian, if they tell him in Nigeria to do two jobs, he will curse your life out.

They will come to America, wake up in the morning, do first job, do second job, do Uber, and do, everything he’s doing. I said, if they put the fraction of this energy they put here in their country, they will have blown. - Oyemade

NARD responds

They confirmed that he's absolutely right. This is why government should enact enforce the law that will enable us get maximum returns from the taxpayers money used for training everyone, not just Healthcare professionals.

$21000 to train a doctor in Nigeria?
Let us use NGR500 as exchange rate, that is around 10 million naira.

I dare say that the NMA is lying.

Poju don dey collect