Does Nigeria have too many doctors to worry about a ‘brain drain’?

Nigeria has too many doctors and is not suffering from a “brain drain”, the country’s minister of labour has said.

But Chris Ngige’s comments, made on a local TV station on Tuesday, have stirred controversy in Africa’s most-populous country, which is estimated to have lost more than $2bn (£1.5bn) since 2010 after training doctors who subsequently emigrated.

John Asam-Osamene, who graduated as a doctor in 2016, hopes to be one of them – planning to move to the UK to work.

He says this was not his intention but poor pay and working conditions at home prompted his decision.

“Graduation is a beautiful experience; it’s all smiles, but shortly after the real world hits you,” he told the BBC.

Dr Chioma Nwakanma, who worked in a public hospital in the south of the country, explains that she and her colleagues have often lacked even the basics.

“I mean as basic as oxygen tanks. Protective equipment like gloves, we have to borrow from patients,” she told the BBC.

She came to prominence during a Lassa fever outbreak last year, when she spoke out about a lack of protective equipment after a colleague contracted the virus and later died.

SRC: BBCNEWS