The Borno chapter of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) has commended the Borno State government for upscale the salary of medical doctors and nurses, saying they earn higher than their colleagues working with federal government.
The chairman of NMA, Borno Branch, Dr. El-Yakub Mohammed made this known during a press briefing on Wednesday in Maiduguri to commemorate the 2025 Physicians’ Week.
According to El-Yakub, the NMA commended the effort of Zulum’s administration rebuilding the health sector and prioritizing the welfare of the medical doctors and nurses in the state.
He said, “As it is today, the salary of the doctoas working in Borno State is even higher than those working in the federal institutions. And this is a landmark achievement that he made a pronouncement and he followed it up. He went further to upgrade the salary of nurses who are our co workers,”he revealed.
El-Yakub urged the Borno State government to enact a residency training fund act which will enhance human capital development for the health sector in the state.
He also called on the Governor Babagana Zulum to ensure urgent legislation of the bill with a view to improve health workers capacity.
“Now, he has done a lot in terms of welfare. Like I said, we are calling on him to take the issues of training as very important. People stay back because of training, let that be intensified. Of course, the issue of medical residency training funds. We want to push for legislation, an act of government, where it’s going to be gazetted that we have a medical residency training fund act for Borno state.
He added, “There are a lot of subjects that have gotten accreditation in the state specialist hospital, they do residency in surgery, they do residency in obstetrics and gynecology and so on. So this will actually improve human resources for health in particular.”El-Yakub said.
The NMA chairman urged the governments to address the push factors and introduce some pull factors to discourage the “Japa” (migration) syndrome.
He noted that some of the best hands were leaving the country for better welfare overseas, thereby putting more pressure on those who have decided to stay despite the poor welfare.
El-Yakub also called on the federal and state governments to provide adequate security for medical doctors and other health workers across the country.
He expressed concern that many health workers operate under fear and uncertainty due to the rising cases of kidnapping, banditry, and other security challenges.
He stressed the need for the Federal Government to provide sufficient resources to better equip security agencies for effective operations.
