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DeKalb Doctor to Take Talent Home to Nigeria

Shelia M. Poole - Staff
March 30, 2005

Dr. Alawode Oladele lives a good life in the United States. But in a few years, he plans to trade it all in and return to his native Nigeria. There, he and other Nigerian physicians want to build several teaching hospitals in the West African nation.

Some of his friends and relatives think he's crazy. But Oladele, who is medical director of the Tuberculosis Program, Refugee Health Services for the DeKalb County Board of Health, views it as a way to reverse a medical brain drain that has stripped the health care system in many African nations.

"I don't see anything wrong with that," said Oladele. "We need to get people to invest in their communities back home. That's the only way to pull ourselves out of the situation we're in now."

Indeed, the medical brain drain has siphoned doctors, nurses and other professionals from the continent, luring them to other nations with enticements such as better educational opportunities, hefty salaries and the use of sophisticated medical equipment and techniques. Beyond that, some see it as a way to escape political instability. In most cases the employers are North American or European medical facilities, trying to fill their own health care personnel needs.

This brain drain has serious consequences, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, which has been hit hard by HIV/AIDS, high infant mortality rates and other health problems.
"It's a big issue in terms of losing doctors and nurses, because their numbers are already so low" in Africa, said Pascal Zurn, a health economist with the World Health Organization's Department of Human Resources for Health in Geneva. "If those numbers decrease, the situation will become more precarious."

Most of the foreign-born physicians practicing in the United States come from India, Pakistan or the Philippines, Zurn said. But those countries also have more medical professionals who decided to stay home. In Africa, because the base number is so low, a loss of 20 or 30 a year from one country can have a big impact.
In fact, during a recent forum on the brain drain held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi complained that there are more Ethiopian doctors in the United States than in his country, according to allAfrica.com.

Fear of war's effects
Liberian-born Josie Curran, a diabetes educator at Grady Health System's diabetes clinic, also would like to go back. But Liberia recently emerged from a brutal civil war that cost hundreds of thousands of lives, and she is not willing to return unless she's sure the country is secure. And the Liberia of today is far different from the one she left. The years of fighting and government mismanagement have crippled its infrastructure and economy.

Curran worked as a registered nurse and nursing instructor in Liberia's capital, Monrovia, before coming to Atlanta in 1984 to attend Emory University. The war prevented her from going back. She last set foot in Liberia in 1992, to bury her grandmother.

Going back will also mean a financial adjustment, making her U.S. salary a thing of the past. By her estimate, she will earn one-fourth of what she makes here. "Before I can return I have to go and assess the situation," said Curran, who lives in Lilburn with her husband and three children. "I don't know at this point how realistic that is."

The medical staff pipeline also stretches to Lagos, Nigeria's commercial center. Nigeria --- Africa's most populous country --- is one of the major health staff EXPORTERS in Africa.

In the past year, more than 30 doctors have left Lagos state alone to pursue careers elsewhere, said state Health Commissioner Dr. Leke Pitan. That figure doesn't include the loss from private practice. In other Nigerian states, he said, it's even worse. They've left to ply their trade in greener pastures: the United States, Europe, Canada, Saudi Arabia and South Africa. "It's a big problem," Pitan said. "In fact, it's limiting our ability to save the lives of our people in Africa."

He has tried to turn the brain drain into a brain gain by getting Nigerians overseas to come home. They empathize, he said, "but naturally they have questions about what are the conditions back home." Pitan thinks the government should do more to ensure that Nigeria's returning sons and daughters have good salaries, homes and medical equipment. "We are willing to meet them halfway," he said. "With more political will, we can focus on the health sector."

A ticket out

Dr. Jonathan Nwiloh, a cardiovascular surgeon in Atlanta, is a friend of Pitan's and someone he would probably love to recruit. There were 120 students in Nwiloh's graduating class in medical school in Nigeria, and at least 75 percent of them left the country. "Many people coming out of medical school have one thing on their minds: to get out," he said. "Meanwhile, the needs there are just incredible."

Nwiloh, who was born in eastern Nigeria, had a plan. He would stay in the United States --- where he trained at Columbia University/Harlem Hospital Center and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center --- and then return.

But "I guess that hasn't quite happened yet," Nwiloh said. And it's unclear whether it will, at least anytime soon. After all, he has built a comfortable life here, with two children in private school and a thriving practice. He's been on the staff at St. Joseph's Hospital since 1996. He said one reason he left Nigeria was to acquire specialized skills that were not available there. But that doesn't mean he's turning his back on his homeland.

Last year, Nwiloh, through his Global Eagle Foundation, along with St. Joseph's Hospital, were honored by the governor of Lagos state for their efforts to establish a heart surgery program at the State University Teaching Hospital there.

Nwiloh and a team of volunteers performed heart surgery on five patients. The St. Joseph's team conducted classes in operating room and blood pump techniques and assisted in non-heart surgeries. Efforts are under way to establish an exchange program, and Nwiloh plans to return to Nigeria soon.

Others help as well. Louis Ebodaghe, past president of the Coalition of Concerned Africans and a technical specialist in coagulation at St. Joseph's, donates medical textbooks to students. Ebodaghe founded the HopeShare Foundation last year to provide humanitarian assistance to his native Nigeria, including medical education material.

Former Atlanta Hawks and now Houston Rockets player Dikembe Mutombo is building a hospital in his native Congo. As for Oladele, the choice is easy. "I think I can help quite a bit back home," he said. "You have to be on the ground. They have to see you there."

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There is one who makes himself rich, yet has nothing; and one who makes himself poor, yet has great riches. Prov. 13:7

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May we be strengthened with the ability, willingness and capabilities to be good ambassadors of Nigeria contributing to its uplifting, rather than its detriment. - Cxsm