Abiodun Enjoins Medical Practitioners To Shun Overseas Job Opportunity

The Health Commissioner, Dr. Tomi Coker with the Lecturer, Dr. Tokunbo Awolowo-Dosumu with other guests at the event

Michael-Azeez Ogunsiji

ABEOKUTA - The Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun has charged medical practitioners to avoid traveling abroad in the name of looking for a greener pasture, stressing the need to make serving Nigeria a priority. 

Prince Abiodun who gave this admonition at the 26th induction ceremony of the graduating set of doctors in Obafemi Awolowo College of Health Sciences, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Sagamu, said medical practice should not be about income but impact which will end up attracting income and significance.

The governor who was represented by the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Tomi Coker, lamented the brain drain in the country which he described as killing the society, pointing out that the developed nations should not continue to get the best of Nigeria at the expense of the well-being of the country.

Considering the maternal mortality between the United Kingdom and Nigeria, Abiodun said, the gulf is wide beyond description, adding that the need for posterity to celebrate those who choose to stay back to serve their fatherland is paramount.

“We have to think of posterity. When we travel abroad, we marry foreigners,  we settle down there and our children do not see themselves as Nigerians anymore.

"You are the highest echelon of the society. The grave consequence of practising abroad is not just about the brain drain but the killing of the society.

“Do not let your pursuit be about income. Instead let it be about impact. When you make impact, income and significance will follow,”he said. 

Prince Abiodun further advised the 41 newly inducted Doctors to uphold the four principles of the Hippocratic oath of the medical profession, including autonomy, justice, beneficence and non-miltificence, noting that being a doctor is a privileged-position and patients health must be taken with utmost dignity, respect and trust.

Congratulating the inductees and their parents, he assured that the present administration will continue to upgrade the health sector to make it attractive to investors, saying that the trust reposed in the government will not be taken for granted.

In her lecture, the guest speaker, Ambassador Tokunbo Awolowo-Dosumu charged the newly inducted to be responsible to themselves, their parents and the nation at large, urging them to take their own health very seriously.

According to her, make sure you are as healthy as you want your patients to be. You can even choose a senior colleague to be your mentor in the medical practice.