According to the Secretary-General of the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities, Prof. Yakubu Ochefu, the overall carrying capacity for medical education in Nigerian universities is less than 8 percent.
In 2019 alone, of the 437,000 qualified candidates who applied to study medicine in Nigerian universities, only about 30,000 of them were taken. The reason is simple, there simply were not enough spaces for the rest of the qualified applicants.
Sad to say, but 92 percent of qualified Nigerian kids whose dreams are to become medical doctors would have these dreams shattered because we have an abysmally low numbers of institutions.
Use your tongue to count your teeth. If applicants of medicine suffer as much disappointment, how much more the rest of the pack?
At no other time is the conversation around more institution and manpower more urgent than now. We must build more if we don’t want the blessing that our population currency is to become an untameable monster.
I’m grateful to my governor HE Dr Yahaya Bello for yielding himself to the insights provided by data. I wish him a quality working relationship with the incoming president Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. I pray that, BAT will also not ‘fi ọ̀rọ̀ Kogi ṣeré’.
– Tade Oshaloto writes from Lokoja.
