On Wednesday, Nigeria and St. Lucia signed a Technical Manpower Assistance that will see Nigeria export some of its experts in exchange for St. Lucia’s experts.

According to the statement disclosed by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the president on Information and Strategy, the deal “is part of efforts to deepen South-South cooperation and reconnect with the African diaspora in the Caribbean”.

Yusuf Buba Yakub, Director General of the Nigerian Technical Aid Corps, who signed the deal on Tinubu’s behalf, said the agreement would allow Nigeria to send expert volunteers, including teachers, medical personnel, agriculturists and experts in other fields, to St. Lucia for two years.

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Yakub revealed that the presidency had deployed professionals to other countries in the past.

“Since my appointment in August, we’ve deployed volunteers to Liberia, Sierra Leone, Jamaica, and other African nations,” he said.

“This programme was nearly dormant, but Mr President revived it with his strong foreign policy vision.

“Right now, we are deploying volunteers to Jamaica. Some are already there, and others will fly out tomorrow from Abuja. Four nurses will depart for Jamaica tomorrow. Additionally, six medical doctors are scheduled to leave for Grenada on July 9th.”

While there is no fundamental pitfall to personnel exchanges, the Nigerian reality shows that these moves have negative ripple effects.

Amid other plights of the medical practice in Nigeria, the country is currently underperforming based on the physicians-to-population ratio.

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The World Health Organisation estimates that at least 2.5 medical staff (physicians, nurses and midwives) per 1,000 people are needed to provide adequate coverage with primary care interventions. Nigeria needs to have 25 medical staff per 10,000 to meet this standard.

However, according to WHO, while Nigeria’s ratio has improved between 2003 and 2023, the results are still underwhelming at 3.8 medical practitioners to 10,000 Nigerians.

Ironically, St Lucia performed far better in 2020 at 42.3 physicians to 10,000 people, according to the same source.

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Besides the obvious deficit in terms of physician-to-population ratio, the timing of the presidency is wrong in a period where the Nigerian Medical Association is currently at loggerheads with the government over welfare issues.

The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) reacted to Tinubu’s move on Thursday and described it as “systemic neglect”.

“This announcement comes at a time when Nigerian doctors are grappling with systemic neglect, poor salaries, withheld allowances, and the release of a controversial salary circular that undermines their welfare and professional dignity,” the statement read.

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The NMA statement was conveyed with the pictorial difference between the amount the exchanged doctors were paid compared to doctors employed by the federal government itself.

According to the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure, 2024, Level 7, Step 11 which is the highest salary for medical practitioners employed by the federal government of Nigeria, the highest salary is pegged at N11,979,154.

FIJ observed a job vacancy put out by the St Lucian government in 2021 for a post under its Ministry of Health and Wellness. For the role of Quality Assurance Manager, the salary was pegged at $73,901.15 per annum. At the rate of N1,500 to the dollar, the salary would equal N110,851,500 per annum. This lends credence to the figures put out by the NMA.