Aare Afe Babalola, the founder and chancellor of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), has called on the government to increase the salaries of medical doctors and ensure prompt payment, attributing poor remuneration to their emigration from Nigeria.
Babalola made this call on Tuesday in Ado-Ekiti during the 7th induction and oath-taking ceremony of the 2024 graduating medical students of the institution.
The elder statesman bemoaned the poor remuneration paid to doctors in Nigeria, describing it as ridiculous and paltry.
His words, “The reason many Nigerian doctors and nurses leave this country immediately after completing their training is because the emoluments paid in naira are much less than what cleaners in hospitals overseas earn.
“Worse still, doctors in many states and government hospitals have not been paid for many months. I appeal to the government to increase the salaries of doctors and ensure prompt payment”.
The legal luminary also criticised the federal government for limiting TETFund beneficiaries to only public universities and not including private universities.
Babalola stated that a quality-driven private university, such as ABUAD, should not be denied access to the TETFund, and that this would also assist self-funded universities in providing higher-quality teaching, research, and community service.
“I am not asking that the money should be given to private universities to develop structures but the functions of a university properly so-called according to the World Bank are quality teaching, research, and community service.
“It is common knowledge that our university is leading in community service and research into the use of African herbs for the production of herbal drugs. The question then is, why should the government deny private universities access to TETFund for research?” he added
Inducting the graduating medical students, the registrar of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN), Professor Fatima Kyari, praised Afe Babalola for establishing quality facilities in the university to effectively equip the students.
The registrar expressed confidence in the transformative momentum aimed at upgrading the country’s healthcare sector, saying that the federal ministry of health is capable of improving the quality of the healthcare system.
Professor Kyari encouraged the entrants to roll up their sleeves and get back to work, emphasising that their contribution to mankind is essential in a country like Nigeria.
The guest lecturer, Professor IkeOluwapo Ajayi, exhorted the inductees to harness the core skills learnt at ABUAD to achieve in their jobs.
Ajayi also pushed them to use their high-quality university knowledge to achieve a competitive advantage in the medical field.
Meanwhile, 23 medical graduate students achieved distinctions, including Oluwatosin Motajo (7 distinctions), Bumiyo Ojogbane (5), and Benedict Orina (5), with all twenty-three exceptional students receiving N100,000 apiece.
