By Laide Akinboade, Abuja

The World Health Organisation, WHO, on Thursday, raised alarm over 5.3 million shortages of health workers in Africa by 2030. Muyiwa Ojo, Technical Office, WHO, revealed this at a two-day capacity training organised by WHO in Abuja. The title of his paper presentation is ‘Interventions to improve Human resources for Health in Nigeria’.

He also lamented the shortages of Medical Doctors in Nigeria, he said though Nigeria is not doing badly with about 86, 548 doctors in the country with a population of over 200,000 people, the nation needs at least double that number (173,096), doctors to effectively cover rhe population. According to ojo, “Lagos alone has about 20% (17, 309), doctors while the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, has about 10% and the other 35 states share the remaining 70%. “The strength of every health system reflects the capacity and adequacy of its health workforce which are necessary to deliver quality services to address population health needs. “Africa has the third largest absolute shortage of health workers in the world with a shortfall of almost 1 million health workers. “Nigeria leads the Africa continent in the magnitude and unpack brain drain on its health workforce. Nigeria is one of the 55 health workforce support and safe guard countries, identified by WHO as having the most pressing, Universal Health Care, UHC- related health workforce needs – WHO 2023.”The main HRH planning, uniformed, policy decisions, inadequate recruitment and retention strategies and inadequate training capacity”.He continued, “In Africa 150,000 new health workers graduate annually. Over 4,000 educational institutions produce new health workers and over 40% private sector . 2.8 million doctors, nurses, midwives , pharmacists, and dentists in 2020 than in 2013, but not matching the pace of population growth and demographic shift.”5.3 million Health workers shortages in the region projected by 2030, half of the global shortages. 32% Health workforce strategies and plans have no funds commitment. 43% funding gap for Health workforce employment. 1 in 3 Health workforce are unemployed or underemployed. 45% intend to migrate in the future data from four countries showing Nigeria level of migration intentions”.He noted, “52% nurses and midwives in 2022 chose to migrate to United Kingdom, UK, while United States, US, was 36% and other countries 12%. Shortages of competent and motivated Health workers with the appropriate skills mix. “The shortage Health workers results from labour market failures linked to education and absorption capacity as well as high levels of attrition particularly migration”. In his second presentation titled ‘Migration of Health Workers and impact on Health and Safety Solutions, HSS, Muyiwa Ojo, said “Globally there are 65.1 million Health workers in 2020, 29.1 million nurses, 12.7 million medical Doctors, 3.7 million pharmacists, 2.5 million dentists, 2.2 million midwives and 14.9 million for all other occupations”.”The projected Health Workforce size is established to grow by 29% by 2030 – to 84 million health workers. With recent data, the global Health Workforce shortage of 15 million health workers in 2020, likely to decrease to 10 million health workers by 2030.”Despite an expected 33% decrease globally, that of the African regionn. Shortage is projected to reduce by 15%.”Nigeria, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Ghana are the leading foreign supplies of nurses to the UK, outside of the European Union and after Philippines and India “.

The Borno Police Command on Wednesday says it has recaptured a 24 year old Auwalu Aminu, also known as “Auwalu Kirkir.”

Aminu is an escaped convict who had been serving a jail term for criminal conspiracy and theft.

According to the Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Nahum Daso, Aminu was one of the inmates who escaped from the Medium Security Custodian Center in Maiduguri following a jailbreak caused by the collapse of the prison’s fence during the devastating floods in September this year.

Daso said that the police received a credible tip-off that Aminu had been sighted in Banki town, “a situation that motivated the Bama Area Command, Banki Divisional Headquarters, to promptly deploy a patrol team.

“Aminu was successfully apprehended on Oct. 16, and is now in the police custody.”

The command’s image maker explained that the escaped convict has been profiled and would be handed over to the Nigeria Correctional Service for further action.

He added that the Commissioner of Police, CP Mohammed Lawal-Yusufu, reaffirmed the command’s commitment to public safety and urged citizens to report any suspicious activity or information about fugitives. (NAN)

The Federal Government has refuted a report, which claimed that Nigeria had apologised over the recent maltreatment of Nigerian Football Federation officials and its senior national football team in Libya.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Amb. Yusuf Tuggar, made this known in a statement issued on Wednesday in Abuja by Alkasim Abdulkadir, his Special Assistant on Media and Communication Strategy.

It stressed that the report, which was published on Oct.

15 by the Libya Observer, claiming that Nigeria had apologised over the incident was erroneous.

The statement added that the minister also expressed the Federal Government’s  strong displeasure over the incident and the said report.

According to Tuggar, the report deliberately aims at gaining political leverage and causing disaffection among continental football administrators and fans.

It quoted the minister as saying that the report was a blatant misinformation and misrepresentation of the telephone correspondence between him and the Foreign Minister of Libya’s Eastern Government.

“Nigeria remains unequivocal in expressing its displeasure and disappointment with how the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) officials were treated in Libya.

“It calls on the Confederation of African Football to urgently ensure that its Disciplinary Board investigates the matter and imposes appropriate sanctions based on its statutes,” Tuggar said.

The minister further explained that the Constitution Drafting Assembly (CDA) of Libya’s Government of National Unity had been summoned by the Ministry to seek an immediate end to the unfortunate incident.

It said that no diplomatic headway was made during the meeting with Libya’s acting Charge d’Affaires, Imad Aboud, who said the matter was not under the jurisdiction of Tripoli, which he represented.

It said that Aboud claimed that the matter was rather under the jurisdiction of Libya’s Eastern Government in Benghazi.

The statement further said that Tuggar immediately  contacted Abdelhadi Lahweej, the Foreign Minister of the Eastern Government, for prompt intervention   in order to end the debacle.

“After that, the aircraft was given the necessary permits to fly, aviation fuel was accessed, and both ministers agreed that the matter should be de-escalated immediately.

“Even when Lahweej insisted on rehashing untruth about the treatment of Libyan players in Nigeria, Tuggar once again corrected the misinformation about mistreatment of Libyan players during the Nigerian encounter.

“He did not apologise or regret the treatment of Libyan officials and players because the account was inaccurate,” the minister was quoted as saying.

“Lahweej proposed a joint statement, which the Ministry rejected because it erroneously misrepresented the facts of the incident.

“Above all, Nigeria only shares a diplomatic relationship with the government of National Accord and not with the Eastern Government,” the statement added. (NAN)