Reported by: Oahimire Omone Precious | Edited by: Gabriel Osa
Calabar, Nigeria — A leading Nigerian medical expert and professor of internal medicine (endocrinology) at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Professor Ofem Enang, has attributed the ongoing crisis in Nigeria’s health sector not to doctors but to deep‑seated systemic failures. His remarks came during the launch of his campaign for the presidency of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) for the 2026–2028 tenure, held at the NMA Secretariat in Calabar.
Professor Enang, a seasoned clinician and academic, made the comments against a backdrop of mounting challenges facing Nigeria’s healthcare system, including workforce shortages, poor infrastructure, unresolved welfare concerns, and recurrent industrial disputes with medical associations. He used the platform to underscore a central theme of his campaign: that the crisis engulfing health services in Nigeria stems from dysfunctional systems rather than the professional conduct of individual doctors.
In his address, Enang emphasised that physicians and other healthcare workers are being unjustly blamed for the collapse of service delivery at hospitals and clinics nationwide. Instead, he argued, longstanding structural weaknesses — including inadequate policy implementation, underfunding, and governance lapses — are at the heart of the malaise affecting the health sector. “This is not the fault of doctors but rather a systems failure,” he said, calling for urgent reforms to reset the profession and strengthen health institutions.
Enang’s intervention comes amid a broader crisis that has seen Nigeria’s teaching hospitals facing multiple strains: staffing gaps due to mass emigration (“Japa syndrome”), industrial actions by resident doctors and other healthcare unions, and mounting public frustration with service disruptions. Across the country, doctors and health workers have staged periodic protests and threats of strikes, often citing poor welfare, delayed salaries and allowances, and unsafe working conditions. Analysts and professional bodies have consistently linked these issues to policy weaknesses and funding shortfalls rather than individual professional failings.
As he launched his bid for the NMA presidency, Enang unveiled a reform blueprint he has dubbed “Renaissance 2026 — The Rebirth of Excellence.” The initiative centres on five key pillars designed to address the systemic roots of the sector’s woes, with doctors’ welfare positioned as its foundation. Central goals include resolving salary arrears, improving promotion prospects, addressing unsafe working hours and allowance disparities, and enhancing protections for medical practitioners against violence and insecurity.
Enang also committed to championing solutions beyond immediate welfare concerns. His platform promises to support housing and retirement security for doctors, advocate for predictable pension systems and post‑retirement health insurance, and pursue structural changes that would improve working and living conditions for medical professionals nationwide. He has called for economic incentives for private practitioners, including tax relief and fair electricity tariffs, as well as innovative funding mechanisms such as a proposed Bank of Medicine to provide low‑interest financing for hospital expansion and research initiatives.
The Calabar campaign event drew attention to Nigeria’s complex health sector landscape, where systemic and policy failures have repeatedly been highlighted by professionals and observers alike. Independent analyses of the sector have pointed to chronic underfunding, weak infrastructure and poor resource allocation as key barriers to effective healthcare delivery. For years, Nigeria has fallen short of the Abuja Declaration target of allocating at least 15 per cent of national budgets to health, contributing to ongoing equipment shortages, inadequate facilities and limited access to quality care.
Beyond funding, persistent workforce challenges continue to undermine service delivery. Health facilities nationwide grapple with severe staff shortages due to migration, poor remuneration and unsafe work environments, prompting widespread concern among professional associations. Medical practitioners have repeatedly drawn attention to these issues, warning that failure to address them risks further destabilising the healthcare system and reducing access to essential services for millions of Nigerians.
Enang’s campaign underscores a growing consensus among health professionals that solutions must extend beyond isolated fixes to embrace systemic reforms that address governance, financing, workforce sustainability and institutional accountability. His call for a comprehensive reset reflects an acknowledgment that piecemeal responses have failed to arrest the sector’s decline and that leadership grounded in reform‑oriented vision may be necessary to steer Nigerian health care toward resilience and excellence.
As the 2026 NMA presidential contest unfolds, stakeholders across the health sector will be watching closely to see whether Enang’s propositions gain traction within the association and translate into broader national influence. With Nigeria’s health system at a critical juncture, the debate over responsibility and solutions — whether rooted in systems or individuals — continues to shape discourse among professionals, policymakers and the public alike.
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