₦airaland Forum

The President of the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria, NPMCN, Dr. Peter N. Ebeigbe, on Wednesday said the College remains resilient in its mandate to train specialists despite the impact of brain drain on fellowship numbers.

Speaking at a pre-convocation press conference ahead of the College’s 43rd convocation ceremony, he announced that 480 new doctors will receive fellowships and other postgraduate awards this year.

Ebeigbe explained that this year’s awardees include 405 Fellows, 34 Doctor of Medicine recipients, 37 Diplomates in Family Medicine, four Distinguished Fellows, and four postgraduate diploma recipients in Anaesthesia and Public Health.

“Our graduands this year are a testament to the resilience and brilliance of Nigerian doctors, even in the face of adversity. Together, we can build a health system Nigerians can be proud of,” he said.

The College President noted that while the College has sustained its output of specialists, the trend of migration, popularly known as japa, has had a noticeable effect on postgraduate medical training.

“From the data available, while it is difficult to conclude that the steady drop caused by the ‘Japa syndrome’ has stopped, it appears that some stability in numbers may be setting in,” he said.

Records from the College show that fellowship awards peaked at
-1). 450 and 459 in 2019 and 2020,
-2). Before dropping sharply to 310 in 2021.
-3). In recent years, the numbers rose again to 407 in 2023
-4). But dipped to 338 in 2024.

Despite the challenges, Ebeigbe highlighted several milestones, including the expansion of postgraduate training programmes.“The Faculty of Emergency Medicine, our sixteenth faculty, has reached the stage where its first cohort of trainees will sit for their Part 1 Fellowship Examinations in October 2025,” he said.

Other innovations include the introduction of -1). Interventional radiology,
-2). Interventional cardiology,
-3). Nuclear medicine,
-4). Pain medicine, and
-5). Critical care medicine across various faculties.

The College has also accredited over 200 training centres nationwide, expanding access to specialist training in underserved regions.
Ebeigbe also pointed to the College’s digital transformation.

“Much of our administrative, monitoring, evaluation, and assessment processes are now done in real time online. We conduct part of our examinations through secure computer-based testing across multiple centres nationwide,” he explained.

On international collaborations, he disclosed that the College is deepening partnerships with sister institutions in the UK, USA, and Africa. These include advanced discussions with five Royal Colleges and collaborations with the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons, as well as the East, Central, and South African College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

Despite economic challenges, the College President reaffirmed the institution’s commitment to innovation and relevance. “We continually review our curricula to align with evolving healthcare needs and global trends, including telemedicine, genomics, and artificial intelligence in clinical care,” he said.

Ebeigbe called on government, the private sector, and international partners to sustain support for postgraduate medical training in Nigeria. “This convocation is not just about certificates and titles, but about the promise of improved healthcare for our people,” he stated.

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2025/09/despite-brain-drain-challenge-npmcn-graduates-480-mew-specialists/

"Nigeria’s Healthcare Future Depends on Specialists – Health Minister."

The Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof Muhammad Pate, on Thursday, said the future of Nigeria’s healthcare system depends on specialists in the sector.

Pate made the remark at the 43rd Convocation Ceremony of the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria (NPMCN), Lagos, where 480 distinguished fellows were celebrated. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Pate was represented by Dr Jimoh Salaudeen.

The convocation, with the theme ‘A Pandemic, Examination and a Degree’, highlighted the importance of postgraduate medical education in strengthening Nigeria’s healthcare system.

Pate described the event as both a celebration of academic excellence and a reaffirmation of NPMCN’s crucial role in national healthcare delivery. He said the graduates formed the backbone of specialist healthcare services across Nigeria’s geopolitical zones.

“The Ministry, under the Renewed Hope Agenda, will strengthen collaboration with NPMCN to ensure a resilient, responsive and people-centred health system,” he said. He urged graduates to let their expertise and compassion serve humanity within and beyond Nigeria’s shores.

The minister said the occasion represented years of sacrifice, diligence, and perseverance, adding that resilience and focus had brought the fellows to this defining moment. He praised NPMCN for over four decades of consistency in pursuing excellence, calling it the flagship of postgraduate medical education in Nigeria.

“The college has set standards, accredited training institutions, and produced generations of medical specialists who continue shaping healthcare delivery nationwide,” he said.

Pate commended the foresight of NPMCN’s founders and leaders, noting their dedication had elevated the college to global recognition.

He outlined the four-point agenda of the President’s Renewed Hope plan, stressing the need to strengthen human resources in healthcare alongside infrastructure, service delivery, research and funding. “Without a strong and well-trained workforce, no health system can thrive. That makes NPMCN indispensable,” he said.

The minister pledged continuous engagement with the college, while acknowledging its challenges. He said the government was considering special funding to fast-track specialist training and reduce brain drain.

Other measures include access to technology funds, support for endowment fundraising, simulation equipment, capacity building, expanded residency training, and nationwide spread of college activities. He reassured the college that a prioritised, phased approach would be adopted to ensure real progress.

The minister also congratulated distinguished fellows, including Dr. Sebastian Nduleogosu, Dr. Dili Ndogo, Dr. Chukwuemeka Anolue, Dr. Fatou Abiola, and Ruth Mudadi.“Your achievements testify to your resilience, sacrifice, and commitment to service,” he said.

Earlier, College President Dr Peter Ebeigbe confirmed that 480 individuals were receiving awards in various categories. He said 405 would receive specialty and subspecialty fellowships across 15 faculties, while 34 were to be awarded the Doctor of Medicine. Two each would earn Postgraduate Diplomas in Anaesthesia and Public Health, while 37 would obtain Diplomas in Family Medicine.

He noted that the college had conferred Distinguished Fellowships on 63 fellows, Fellowships on 9,151, and Honorary Fellowships on 35 individuals.

Ebeigbe stated that fellowship awards peaked in 2019 and 2020, with 450 and 459 graduates, respectively, before declining to 310 in 2021. He added that outputs stood at 407 in 2023 and 338 in 2024, reflecting steady fluctuations in recent years. The college, he said, remained grateful for strong ties with sister postgraduate medical colleges in Africa and beyond.

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2025/09/nigerias-healthcare-future-depends-on-specialists-health-minister/

This is a remarkable feat - that medical doctors are even doing specialist training in Nigeria today. The government should better compensate them well with better renumerations, allowances, promotions and more specialist trainings. Otherwise nah JAPA mode those guys dey be that. Congratulations guys.

The minister said the government was considering special funding to fast-track specialist training and reduce brain drain.

Imagine! A govt that does not even trust or have faith in its own healthcare system with the president, past presidents, Senate president, FCT minister, governors, NASS members and other official going to access healthcare in cosy foreign hospitals?

Is radiography a medical course? Can they open a center and practice?

vanbonattel:
Is radiography a medical course? Can they open a center and practice?

Yes! There are medical radiographers but I don't think they can practice on their own but under radiologists in imaging centers.

The minister also congratulated distinguished fellows including
-1). Dr. Sebastian Nduleogosu,
-2). Dr. Chukwuemeka Anolue,
-3). Dr. Dili Ndogo
-4). Dr. Fatou Abiola, and
-5). Dr. Ruth Mudadi.

“Your achievements testify to your resilience, sacrifice, and commitment to service,” he said.

Always representing the race well in all realms of life. Ala anyi ga na ganiru. Congratulations umunnem

And most of them would start looking for opportunities outside.
Unfortunately, it's not as easy and cheap as it was years back.

Graduates with zero experience. These people still dont get it

omoredia:
Graduates with zero experience. These people still dont get it

Please can you go a take up and complete the MBBS degree first before we know if you can also stand the challenge to start and finish residency under grueling conditions in our teaching hospitals.

Racoon:
Please can you go and take up and complete the MBBS degree first before we know if you can also stand the challenge to start and finish residency(under grueling conditions in our teaching hospitals) or specialist training too?

U are a joke. Are u counting on nigerian education in any shape or form? On private now offers a little hope

[quote author=omoredia post=136843054]Graduates with zero experience. These people still dont get it[but/quote]
Educate yourself on what it takes to be a fellow of a medical college.

[quote author=Nozarashi post=136843138][/quote]Which fellow? fellow fo o I that follows other f o oIs

Instead of 48,000 of them and reduce unemployment while improve the global and nigerian economy, the rest that were denied admission to prop up the Nigerian standard in the eyes of the world, of what value are they to the society? This corntree na destiny killer walahi.

80% of them will soon japa...everybody is wise now. Even their lecturers are leaving in droves.

Still very small. Medical school should admit more.
They should expand the medical field to admit more students.

omoredia:
Graduates with zero experience. These people still dont get it

Are there any graduates with experience anywhere in the world? I hope you got that?

Racoon:
This is a remarkable feat - that medical doctors are even doing specialist training in Nigeria today. The government should better compensate them well with better renumerations, allowances, promotions and more specialist trainings. Otherwise nah JAPA mode those guys dey be that. Congratulations guys.

The way things are today, the govt knows they deserve better but wont want to do that in other not to fund their japa. Poverty for majority remains the ultimate strategy for relevance of the elitesand leader.

Racoon:
This is a remarkable feat - that medical doctors are even doing specialist training in Nigeria today.

The government should better compensate them well with better renumerations, allowances, promotions and more specialist trainings. Otherwise nah JAPA mode those guys dey be that. Congratulations guys.

What better compensation is there for medical doctors when they are not politicians?

In any case, the Okija shrine governor said that we don’t have brain drain but we have brain gain.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrBZ7soT4qo

chisomkachy:
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu’s first supplementary budget includes a fleet of SUVs for himself and his wife, a presidential yacht and the renovation of his villa amid a cost-of-living crisis for some of the poorest people in the world.

The proposal — which seeks additional funding beyond the annual budget approved by Tinubu’s predecessor — comes as the government asks Nigerians to persevere through pain caused in part by a raft of economic reforms ushered in by the new president. Africa’s most populous country faces rampant unemployment, soaring food prices and a plummeting currency.

Federal lawmakers approved the president’s request for extra spending on Thursday, but eliminated the provision of 5 billion naira ($6.01 million) to buy a presidential yacht. Instead, they doubled the allocation to a student loan fund to 10 billion naira, according Abubakar Bichi, chairman of an appropriations committee in the House of Representatives.

The lawmakers approved 1.5 billion-naira proposed to purchase SUVs for the office of First Lady Oluremi Tinubu — an amount larger than that allocated to many individual federal colleges. The supplementary budget also proposes almost 6 billion naira to purchase SUVs for the presidency — more than the amount initially allocated to fund a student loan program for poor families.


https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-02/nigeria-budgets-for-suvs-and-yachts-amid-economic-hardship

Lol... You are training them for more developed and serious nations.

Brain drain will continue as long as this nation continues down this path of poor leadership.

CodeTemplarr:
The way things are today, the govt knows they deserve better but wont want to do that in other not to fund their japa.

Poverty for majority remains the ultimate strategy for relevance of the elites and leader.

How do we change this Stockholm Syndrome mindset of the people?

What can we do to change this mindset that is impoverishing all of us- elite, middle class or poor people?

anonimi:
The eyesore on Bourdillon Road
2nd January 2025

Beyond his neighbours, there is something about the sight of people hanging around a president’s residence that does not speak well of his leadership capabilities. Maybe no one has nudged him to see it, but the impression that spectacle on Bourdillon Road generates is that Tinubu enjoys the sight of suffering humans and thrives in—and through— their poverty.

If all these years, impoverished people hang around you and you remain comfortable enough to keep them just so they can be handed tokens of your large heart, then it means you have a pro-poverty mindset. Such a frame of mind is oriented toward cultivating poverty rather than stimulating abundance.

That is why he could unproblematically relate the story of his “friend” who went from using five Rolls Royce to a far-less valued car and not consider the import of the nonsense he was saying. That spurious account was an indication that this is a man for whom poverty—of others, not himself—is an ideal.

https://punchng.com/the-eyesore-on-bourdillon-road/

(A case study of Nigeria citizens & their elected oppressors).

During the Soviet dictatorship of Joseph stalin. He was a brutal dictator with mind of his own. On one fateful day, stalin came to Politburo meeting with a live chicken. Standing in front of audience, He started to pluck the feathers of the live chicken off one by one. The chicken trembled in pain, blood tricking out of its pores. It gave out grievous cries, but stalin being a cruel dictator continued without remorse plucking the feathers out until the chicken was completely Unclad. After which, he threw the chicken on the ground. The Unclad chicken was staggering in pain. stalin goes into his pocket and from his pockets, he took out some chicken food and started to throw it at the poor & hapless creature. The poor chicken in pain started eating and stalin started walking towards his seat. As he walked away, he kept dropping some feeds on the floor & the chicken followed him and sat feeding from his feet.

Joseph stalin then turned to members of his political party leadership. He said, "This chicken represents the people". "You must disempower them, brutalise them, beat them up, starve them and then leave them". "If you do this, go into your pocket & give them peanuts when they are in that helpless and desperate situation, they will blindly follow you for the rest of their life, worshiping you". "They will think you are a hero forever. They will forget that, you're responsible for their sorrowful situation in the first place." Breath taking, isn't it ?

Now! Take a look at all the people some Nigerians are busy defending on social media. Take a look at those they call their heroes. They are the same people who plunged Nigeria into the situation she is. They are the same people who are responsible for their predicaments. Did you see the numbers of people that throng to Saraki's House during this Sallah period to go collect peanuts? People trooping to Bola Ahmed Tinubu Foundation offices to collect branded One kilo bag of Rice & Noddles. Did you see the number of people of all ages who troop out to welcome Ex- convict James Ibori to South South! Do you see the number of handle mop following obi as if he is a seat? what of the one following dino malaye?

Your guess is as good as mine. Nigerians kill those they should defend and defend those they should kill! Pass to all your contacts & let your Political & Religion Leaders read, understand & digest.

Angelfrost:
Lol... You are training them for more developed and serious nations.

Brain drain will continue as long as this nation continues down this path of poor leadership.

From where do the poor leaders emerge? Can it from the poorer people in this nation


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMWUS1W_ITc

anonimi:
“The worst illiterate is the political illiterate, he doesn’t hear, doesn’t speak, nor participates in the political events.

He doesn’t know the cost of life, the price of the bean, of the fish, of the flour, of the rent, of the shoes and of the medicine, all depends on political decisions. The political illiterate is so stupid that he is proud and swells his chest saying that he hates politics.

The slowpoke doesn’t know that, from his political ignorance is born the prostitute, the abandoned child, and the worst thieves of all, the bad politician, corrupted and flunky of the national and multinational companies.”

― Bertolt Brecht

heykims:
And most of them would start looking for opportunities outside.
Unfortunately, it's not as easy and cheap as it was years back.

Where there is will , there is way .
It is actually easier for the specialists to japa than other cadre of Doctors because they are richer

anonimi:
What better compensation is there for medical doctors when they are not politicians?

In any case, the Okija shrine governor said that we don’t have brain drain but we have brain gain.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrBZ7soT4qo

Hian, you have started again ooooooooo with your savage response, Shots Fired from your USSR SCUD MISSILE from the Antarctica region and it hits it's intended targets nawaooo hahaha 😂

anonimi:
How do we change this Stockholm Syndrome mindset of the people?

What can we do to change this mindset that is impoverishing all of us- elite, middle class or poor people?





(A case study of Nigeria citizens & their elected oppressors).

During the Soviet dictatorship of Joseph stalin. He was a brutal dictator with mind of his own. On one fateful day, stalin came to Politburo meeting with a live chicken. Standing in front of audience, He started to pluck the feathers of the live chicken off one by one. The chicken trembled in pain, blood tricking out of its pores. It gave out grievous cries, but stalin being a cruel dictator continued without remorse plucking the feathers out until the chicken was completely Unclad. After which, he threw the chicken on the ground. The Unclad chicken was staggering in pain. stalin goes into his pocket and from his pockets, he took out some chicken food and started to throw it at the poor & hapless creature. The poor chicken in pain started eating and stalin started walking towards his seat. As he walked away, he kept dropping some feeds on the floor & the chicken followed him and sat feeding from his feet.

Joseph stalin then turned to members of his political party leadership. He said, "This chicken represents the people". "You must disempower them, brutalise them, beat them up, starve them and then leave them". "If you do this, go into your pocket & give them peanuts when they are in that helpless and desperate situation, they will blindly follow you for the rest of their life, worshiping you". "They will think you are a hero forever. They will forget that, you're responsible for their sorrowful situation in the first place." Breath taking, isn't it ?

Now! Take a look at all the people some Nigerians are busy defending on social media. Take a look at those they call their heroes. They are the same people who plunged Nigeria into the situation she is. They are the same people who are responsible for their predicaments. Did you see the numbers of people that throng to Saraki's House during this Sallah period to go collect peanuts? People trooping to Bola Ahmed Tinubu Foundation offices to collect branded One kilo bag of Rice & Noddles. Did you see the number of people of all ages who troop out to welcome Ex- convict James Ibori to South South! Do you see the number of handle mop following obi as if he is a seat? what of the one following dino malaye?

Your guess is as good as mine. Nigerians kill those they should defend and defend those they should kill! Pass to all your contacts & let your Political & Religion Leaders read, understand & digest.

Another SOVIET UNION scud missile Fired from Mount Everest and it hits it's intended targets nawaooo hahaha 😂

WesleyPepper:
Where there is will , there is way .
It is actually easier for the specialists to japa than other cadre of Doctors because they are richer

Hian, hahahahahahahaha , nawaooo oturugbeke ooooooooo

anonimi:
From where do the poor leaders emerge? Can it from the poorer people in this nation


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMWUS1W_ITc

More bullets oozing out from your armory from the Pentagon headquarters in the USA, hahaha 😂

vanbonattel:
Is radiography a medical course? Can they open a center and practice?

Yes. Very Lucrative field . Yes they can open a center according to their financial strength, as individual or collective entity. Mecure in Oshodi readily comes to mind.