Renewed Hope Cannot Be Treated Abroad: Nigeria’s Fragile Health System, Medical Tourism, and the Leadership Question (Opinion Piece)
Renewed
Hope Cannot Be Treated Abroad: Nigeria’s Fragile Health System, Medical
Tourism, and the Leadership Question
By Dr. Nana Akaeze
This is my voice. This
is my belief.
When the United States Department of
State updated its Nigeria Travel Advisory on April 8, 2026, one phrase stood
out with painful clarity: travelers were told to reconsider travel to Nigeria
because of crime, terrorism, unrest, kidnapping, and “inconsistent availability
of health care services.”
That phrase should trouble every
Nigerian leader.
It should trouble President Bola Ahmed
Tinubu. It should trouble his cabinet. It should trouble every governor,
senator, minister, political appointee, and public official who speaks
beautifully about reform while quietly depending on foreign hospitals when
their own health is at stake.
Because when a foreign government
warns its citizens that healthcare services in Nigeria may not be consistently
available, it is not merely warning foreigners. It is exposing what ordinary
Nigerians already know. It is exposing a country where the rich can escape the
system while the poor are trapped inside it. It is exposing a country where
leaders travel abroad for medical checks and treatment while citizens are left
with hospitals struggling with poor infrastructure, unstable electricity,
limited drugs, overworked doctors, exhausted nurses, and emergency services
that often fail when they are needed most.
This is one of the deepest moral
failures of Nigerian leadership.
The same leaders who have the power to
fix the health system often behave as though Nigeria is only good enough to
govern, but not good enough to heal them.
A nation cannot keep sending its
leaders abroad for medical care while ordinary citizens are left to struggle in
hospitals without stable electricity, essential medicine, modern equipment,
emergency response, or enough doctors and nurses.
Who heals the people when those
elected to fix the system no longer trust the system themselves?
This question has become even more
urgent after recent discussions around Nigeria’s long history of medical
tourism among its leaders. In their Vanguard article titled Nigeria’s
Long History of Medical Tourism at the Top, Njide Ndili and Femi Olugbile
reflected on the death of former President Muhammadu Buhari and noted that he
had traveled to the United Kingdom for medical treatment before his passing.
They also reminded Nigerians that this pattern was not new. It has long been
part of Nigeria’s elite political culture.
The article referenced past leaders,
including Ibrahim Babangida, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan, Olusegun
Obasanjo, and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as part of a broader national
reality where leaders and top public officials often seek healthcare abroad.
This is not just about one president.
It is about a system.
It is about a country where leadership
has repeatedly failed to build the same healthcare system it expects ordinary
citizens to depend on. It is about a country where leaders campaign on reform,
speak about patriotism, promise transformation, but when sickness comes, they
board the next flight out of the country.
That is not leadership confidence.
That is leadership confession.
President Tinubu came into office
under the banner of Renewed Hope. His health agenda promised reforms centered
on Universal Health Coverage, expansion of health insurance, strengthening of
the National Health Insurance Authority, revitalization of primary healthcare
facilities, and response to the brain drain weakening Nigeria’s health
workforce.
Premium Times reported that his
manifesto pledged to expand insurance coverage to at least 40 percent of the
population within two years, scale up the NHIA, and revitalize primary
healthcare facilities.
These were not small promises. They
were serious promises. They were promises made to a country where millions of
people fear sickness not only because of pain, but because illness can destroy
a family financially.
They were promises made to mothers.
They were promises made to children. They were promises made to doctors and
nurses. They were promises made to rural communities. They were promises made
to Nigerians in the diaspora who want to come home and contribute but cannot
convince themselves that Nigeria is safe enough, medically reliable enough, or
structurally ready enough for their families.
To be fair, some steps have been
taken. Premium Times reported that the Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Investment
Initiative was launched in December 2023 with the goal of achieving Universal
Health Coverage by 2030. The initiative aims to improve reproductive, maternal,
newborn, and child health, and to strengthen primary healthcare by revitalizing
17,000 primary healthcare centers. The report also noted that more than $2.2
billion in external financing had reportedly been mobilized for the initiative
by mid-2024.
These are promising starts.
But promising starts are not enough.
Two years into President Tinubu’s
tenure, Premium Times concluded that Nigeria’s health sector remains fragile
despite some policy moves and funding efforts. The report identified
underfunding, inadequate infrastructure, workforce shortages, recurring disease
outbreaks, electricity crises in hospitals, and limited access to healthcare
services as continuing burdens.
That is where the concern becomes
serious.
If the promises are visible on paper
but the pain remains visible in hospitals, then Nigerians have the right to
ask: where is the renewed hope in healthcare?
Can a pregnant woman in a rural
community reach a functioning health center before complications become
tragedy?
Can a child with malaria receive
prompt care without the family first searching for money?
Can an accident victim trust that an
ambulance will arrive with trained personnel and proper equipment?
Can a stroke patient access emergency
care quickly?
Can a diabetic patient find affordable
medication consistently?
Can the average Nigerian walk into a
public hospital and receive dignified treatment without being asked to pay
immediately before care begins?
The U.S. Travel Advisory states that
Nigerian medical facilities are generally not equipped to U.S. or European
standards, many medicines may not be available, counterfeit pharmaceuticals are
a common problem, hospitals often expect immediate cash payment, blood supply
is often unreliable, and ambulance services are often poorly equipped or
unreliable.
Let us pause there.
If this is what foreign governments
are telling their citizens, what have Nigerians been enduring for decades?
They know because they have lived it.
They have carried loved ones from one hospital to another. They have bought
gloves, syringes, drugs, cotton wool, and even fuel before care could continue.
They have watched doctors work under impossible conditions. They have watched
nurses plead for basic supplies. They have seen hospitals lose electricity in
the middle of care. They have watched families beg before treatment begins.
And yet, the political class continues
to normalize foreign medical trips.
This culture deserves scathing
condemnation.
It is not enough to say that leaders
have the right to seek medical treatment wherever they choose. Every human
being deserves care. Every life matters. But public leadership comes with moral
responsibility. When those who govern Nigeria routinely depend on foreign
hospitals, they are telling the world that they do not trust the system they
supervise.
That is not just medical tourism.
That is a public vote of no
confidence.
It is a betrayal of the ordinary
Nigerian who cannot board a plane to London, Dubai, India, Germany, Saudi
Arabia, or the United States when sickness comes.
It is a betrayal of Nigerian doctors
and nurses who are expected to remain patriotic while the ruling class abandons
the system they work in.
It is a betrayal of the poor who are
told to be patient while leaders escape the consequences of their own failure
to build functioning hospitals.
The Guardian Nigeria editorial of
April 25, 2026, titled Medical Tourism and the $550m Question,
reported that Nigerians spent about $549.29 million on medical travel abroad in
the first nine months of 2025. The figures, drawn from the Central Bank of
Nigeria’s statistical bulletin, showed $151.53 million spent in the first
quarter, $189.41 million in the second quarter, and $208.35 million in the
third quarter of 2025. Guardian noted that this represented nearly an 18
percent increase compared with the same period in 2024.
Punch made the same point even more
sharply in its March 3, 2026 editorial, Nigeria’s Unsustainable Medical
Tourism. According to Punch, Nigerians spent $465.67 million on medical
tourism in the first nine months of 2024, but by the same period in 2025, the
amount had risen to $549.29 million, a 17.96 percent increase. Punch also
reported that the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad
Pate, estimated Nigeria’s annual loss to medical tourism at about $2 billion.
Then came another painful reminder.
In July 2025, PUNCH reported that
Nigerians spent at least $29.29 billion on foreign medical expenses during the
eight years of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. According to
the report by Sami Tunji, this translated to about $3.6 billion annually
between June 2015 and May 2023, based on Central Bank of Nigeria quarterly
statistical bulletins under the “Health-Related and Social Services” category.
That figure should trouble every
serious government.
At a time when Nigeria struggles with
foreign exchange pressure, inflation, debt, poverty, unemployment, and a
weakened currency, billions of dollars leaving the country for foreign
healthcare is not merely a health issue. It is an economic issue. It is a
national planning issue. It is a governance issue. It is a vote of no
confidence in the Nigerian state.
PUNCH also reported that foreign
medical spending surged again in the later years of Buhari’s administration,
with $6.96 billion recorded between June 2021 and May 2022, and $7.12 billion
between June 2022 and May 2023. The second term ended up recording more foreign
medical spending than the first, suggesting that the deeper drivers of medical
tourism—poor infrastructure, lack of trust in local healthcare, and elite
preference for foreign treatment—remained unresolved.
This should alarm any serious
government.
Medical tourism is not strange in
itself. Citizens of many countries travel abroad for specialized procedures.
But when hundreds of millions and even billions of dollars leave a country
because citizens lack confidence in local hospitals, then medical tourism
becomes evidence of policy failure.
Guardian called it the $550 million
question.
Punch called it unsustainable.
Nigerians should call it what it is: a
mirror of leadership failure.
Why are Nigerians still spending this
much abroad when Nigeria has some of the best-trained doctors, nurses,
pharmacists, laboratory scientists, and medical professionals in the world?
Why are Nigerian doctors celebrated in
Europe, North America, and the Middle East, yet often unable to deliver optimal
care at home because hospitals lack modern equipment, reliable electricity,
diagnostic capacity, essential medicines, efficient management, and adequate
funding?
Why should Nigeria produce globally
respected medical professionals only to lose them to systems built by other
countries?
The painful irony is that Nigeria has
the human talent. What Nigeria lacks is the leadership discipline to build the
system around that talent.
Vanguard made an important
distinction. Nigeria’s problem may be both a matter of inadequate facilities
and a matter of lack of trust. If the facilities are not good enough, they must
be upgraded intentionally to meet international standards. If the issue is lack
of trust, then the work is deeper because confidence must be rebuilt through
visible quality, measurable performance, and ethical leadership.
That distinction matters.
If Nigeria’s hospitals lack equipment,
then equip them.
If hospitals lack specialists, then
retain them.
If doctors are leaving, then confront
why they are leaving.
If patients do not trust local
hospitals, then rebuild trust through performance, not propaganda.
If leaders do not trust the system,
then they must stop pretending that the system is working for everyone else.
Guardian noted that many specialized
procedures Nigerians travel abroad for, including cardiovascular surgeries,
cancer treatment, organ transplants, and advanced diagnostics, could be
provided locally if hospitals were properly equipped and funded. Punch also
warned that public hospitals remain crippled by inadequate manpower, unreliable
electricity, obsolete or unavailable diagnostic equipment, corruption, and
frequent strikes.
This is not how a serious country
protects its citizens.
Public hospitals remain burdened by
obsolete equipment, weak laboratory capacity, erratic drug availability, poor
electricity, and fragile management systems. In some cases, medical tests still
have to be sent abroad because local laboratories lack the needed equipment or
reagents. When citizens believe their chances of survival are higher outside
their own country, those who can afford to leave will leave. Those who cannot
afford to leave will suffer.
That is not healthcare.
That is class-based survival.
The Premium Times report makes the
failure harder to deny. Nigeria’s health budget remains far below the Abuja
Declaration’s 15 percent benchmark. In 2024, the federal government allocated
N1.23 trillion to health, about 5.46 percent of the total budget. In 2025, the
allocation rose to N2.48 trillion, but that still represented only 5.18 percent
of the national budget. Even with an additional N300 billion approved by the
National Assembly, the country remained far from the 15 percent benchmark.
Punch added another shocking layer:
Nigeria has failed to meet even eight percent of national budget allocation to
health, and Muhammad Pate reportedly disclosed that his ministry received only
N36 million out of N218 billion appropriated for capital expenditure in the
previous year.
That is not merely disappointing.
It is unacceptable.
How can Nigeria claim health is on the
front burner when the budget still speaks with a low voice?
How can leaders talk about
transformation when appropriated funds do not reach where they are needed?
How can hospitals function when
capital releases are delayed, denied, or swallowed by bureaucracy?
Money alone will not fix the system.
But no serious health system can be built on weak investment, poor
accountability, political ceremonies, procurement corruption, and endless
dependence on foreign assistance.
The workforce crisis is equally
frightening. Premium Times reported that over 16,000 doctors left Nigeria in
the last five to seven years, reducing the doctor-to-population ratio to 3.9
per 10,000 people. Punch also reported that the Nigerian Medical Association
estimates that more than 50,000 Nigerian-trained doctors now practice abroad.
This is not ordinary brain drain.
This is national bleeding.
Doctors are leaving. Consultants are
leaving. Nurses are leaving. Pharmacists are leaving. Young professionals are
losing faith. The health system is losing the very people needed to save it.
And why are they leaving?
Poor working conditions. Low pay.
Limited opportunities. Weak infrastructure. Insecurity. Exhaustion. Lack of
respect. Lack of confidence in the future.
The bitter irony is that some Nigerian
medical tourists are treated abroad by the same Nigerian doctors and nurses who
left because Nigeria failed to retain them.
A government cannot train health
workers with one hand and lose them with the other, then call it progress.
Disease outbreaks also continue to
expose the weakness of the system. Premium Times reported that Nigeria faced a
major diphtheria outbreak in 2024, with over 24,000 cases and 1,264 deaths by
February 2025. Cholera also remained a major challenge, with 17,139 cases and
603 deaths reported nationwide in 2024, while Lassa fever remained endemic with
1,059 confirmed cases and 175 deaths across 28 states.
These outbreaks are not just medical
events.
They are governance warnings.
They reveal weak immunization systems.
They reveal gaps in infection prevention and control. They reveal poor water,
sanitation, and hygiene infrastructure. They reveal hospitals that are not
always prepared to prevent infection while treating illness.
Punch also reminded Nigerians of the
human cost, reporting that Nigeria ranks among countries with the highest
maternal and child mortality rates globally, and that between January and
September 2025 alone, more than 20,811 maternal and child deaths were
reportedly recorded.
How can any serious leader sleep
peacefully with numbers like these?
How can political leaders buy luxury
convoys and build expensive residences while hospitals lack MRI machines,
trauma equipment, oxygen systems, stable power, functional laboratories, and
lifesaving drugs?
How can the same system that cannot
protect mothers and children continue to fund the comfort of leaders?
This is where President Tinubu has
failed to move fast enough.
Yes, policies have been announced.
Yes, initiatives have been launched. Yes, some progress has been acknowledged.
But even with those signs of progress, the larger truth remains: Nigerians are
still not feeling enough relief.
Policy is not the same as
transformation.
A press release does not save a
bleeding patient.
A summit does not power a hospital
ward.
A health compact does not stop a
doctor from emigrating.
A budget line does not help a mother
in labor if the clinic is dark, understaffed, and underequipped.
A promise of Universal Health Coverage
means little if ordinary Nigerians still pay out of pocket until poverty
swallows them.
This is why the culture of medical
tourism by leaders must be confronted directly.
Nigeria cannot continue to have
leaders who praise reform at home but seek confidence abroad. Nigeria cannot
continue to have public officials who budget for hospitals they do not use.
Nigeria cannot continue to have a ruling class that escapes the suffering it
asks citizens to endure.
Throughout his presidency, Buhari was
frequently criticized for seeking medical care abroad. PUNCH reported that he
spent at least 225 days outside the country on medical trips and undertook
numerous foreign trips during his tenure. His former spokesman, Femi Adesina,
defended the trips by saying Buhari had used the same medical team for about 40
years and suggested that seeking medical care in Nigeria merely for appearance
could have endangered him.
That defense may speak to personal
medical trust, but it also exposes the national contradiction.
If the Nigerian system could not be
trusted by the President, then what exactly were ordinary Nigerians expected to
trust?
This is not about denying any leader
care. It is about asking why public leaders have failed to build a system good
enough for themselves and their citizens.
The Vanguard article also reminded
Nigerians that some leaders have chosen differently. Former Vice President Yemi
Osinbajo underwent orthopedic surgery at Duchess International Hospital in
Lagos in 2022, a decision that was widely praised as symbolic and
confidence-building. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Abba Kyari, former Chief of
Staff to President Buhari, died in a Lagos hospital intensive care facility
because international travel was restricted.
COVID-19 should have taught Nigeria a
brutal lesson.
When international borders closed,
even the elite discovered that a neglected health system can become everyone’s
problem. A broken health system may punish the poor first, but one day, it can
trap the powerful too.
Nigeria must stop exporting its
failures.
Around the world, leaders often use
domestic healthcare systems as a mark of national confidence. American
presidents use American hospitals such as Walter Reed. British Prime Minister
Boris Johnson was treated in an NHS hospital during COVID-19. Indian leaders
have used institutions like AIIMS. South African leaders have largely relied on
local medical care. Tanzania’s late President John Magufuli publicly
discouraged foreign medical trips by officials and demonstrated confidence in
local hospitals.
Nigeria must learn from these
examples.
A leader’s choice of healthcare is not
merely personal. It is symbolic. It speaks to confidence, national capacity,
security, and trust.
When leaders use local hospitals, they
force the system to improve.
When leaders abandon local hospitals,
the system remains abandoned.
This is where President Tinubu must
act with urgency.
Mr. President, this article is written
in good faith. It is not written to insult you. It is written because
leadership must be told the truth before history writes the final verdict.
You cannot continue to speak of
Renewed Hope while Nigerians feel abandoned in hospitals.
You cannot continue to promise reform
while doctors continue to leave.
You cannot continue to ask Nigerians
in the diaspora to come home when they cannot trust the safety of the country
or the reliability of the healthcare system.
Many qualified Nigerians abroad want
to return. Many doctors, nurses, professors, engineers, business professionals,
and investors want to contribute to national development. But they ask
themselves simple questions: Will my family be safe? If my child falls sick,
can I trust the hospital? If there is an emergency, will an ambulance come? If
I invest, will insecurity destroy it? If I return to serve, will the system
frustrate me?
These are not small questions.
They are nation-shaping questions.
Safety and healthcare are not side
issues. They are foundational issues. If President Tinubu can fix safety and
healthcare, many of his other economic reforms will begin to make sense to the
general populace.
But when people are hungry, unsafe,
afraid, and medically vulnerable, no reform language can comfort them.
A citizen who cannot travel safely
cannot appreciate infrastructure.
A mother who cannot access emergency
care cannot celebrate policy documents.
A doctor who is unpaid, unsafe, and
overworked cannot be persuaded by patriotic speeches.
A diaspora professional who fears
kidnapping and medical failure cannot confidently relocate home.
Mr. President, the country needs
delivery, not decoration.
Nigeria does not lack talent. Nigeria
lacks a system that protects talent, rewards competence, and holds leaders
accountable. This is why competent people must be placed in charge of critical
national assignments and fully backed to succeed.
Where a minister is delivering visible
results, support that minister. Where performance is clear, strengthen it. Many
Nigerians point to the Federal Capital Territory under Nyesom Wike as an
example of what can happen when a leader is given a mandate, resources,
urgency, and presidential backing to execute visible projects.
That same seriousness must be brought
to healthcare.
Nigeria needs Wike-level urgency in
hospitals.
Nigeria needs a deliver-or-leave
standard in the health sector.
Nigeria needs competent health
administrators, not political placeholders.
Nigeria needs people who understand
systems, financing, accountability, hospital management, emergency care,
insurance expansion, public-private partnerships, and workforce retention.
Nigeria needs leaders who can look the
President in the face and say: Sir, this hospital must work. Sir, this
ambulance system must work. Sir, this insurance system must reach ordinary
Nigerians. Sir, this budget must be released. Sir, this corruption must stop.
Sir, this reform must be measured by what citizens feel, not what government
announces.
If President Tinubu wants to be taken
seriously on health reform, he must lead a new moral standard.
He should support a law barring
elected officials and government appointees from traveling abroad for medical
treatment at public expense, except in rare cases where specialized care is
genuinely unavailable and transparently justified.
And if specialized care is
unavailable, that absence should become an urgent national project, not a
permanent excuse.
He should make the strengthening of
Nigerian hospitals a visible national priority. Nigeria should invest in at
least one world-class federal medical center in each geopolitical zone, with
modern emergency care, cancer care, cardiac care, maternal care, diagnostic
capacity, trauma care, organ-transplant capacity, and specialist treatment.
He should strengthen primary
healthcare beyond announcements. Every ward deserves access to a functional
health center with trained personnel, essential medicines, clean water,
electricity, maternity care, immunization services, and referral systems that
actually work.
He should treat emergency medical
services as a national priority. Nigeria needs reliable ambulances, trained
paramedics, functional trauma centers, emergency response numbers that work,
safe blood systems, and hospitals ready to receive patients without delay.
He should protect health workers with
real welfare, not symbolic appreciation. Better pay, non-taxable call duty
allowances, safe working conditions, rural service incentives, housing support,
career development, and transparent recruitment must become urgent priorities.
He should expand health insurance in a
way ordinary Nigerians can feel. The NHIA must move beyond numbers and reach
farmers, artisans, traders, market women, students, informal workers, rural
families, and the unemployed.
He should confront drug inflation and
counterfeit medicines. Local pharmaceutical production must be supported,
tariffs on essential medical supplies should be reviewed, quality control must
be strengthened, and lifesaving medicines must become affordable.
He should strengthen the supply chain
for pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, diagnostic reagents, and hospital
consumables so that treatment is not interrupted by shortages that should have
been prevented.
He should confront corruption in the
health sector with seriousness. Without transparent management and
accountability, increased funding may fail to translate into improved
healthcare delivery. Digital procurement, independent oversight, public
reporting, and strict consequences for abuse must become part of health-sector
reform.
He should demand transparency in
health spending. Nigerians deserve to know where the money is going, which
hospitals are being upgraded, which primary health centers are functional, how
many workers have been retained, how many patients are covered, and what
outcomes have improved.
He should also understand the
connection between health and security. Security must improve so that Nigerians
in the diaspora, including world-class medical professionals, can feel safe
enough to return home.
A country cannot attract back its
medical talent if doctors fear insecurity, poor infrastructure, weak
institutions, and lack of accountability.
Above all, President Tinubu must
understand this: healthcare is not charity. It is not a favor. It is not
campaign decoration. It is a fundamental obligation of government.
A country where citizens cannot access
reliable healthcare is not secure.
A country where hospitals lack
electricity is not secure.
A country where doctors are leaving is
not secure.
A country where children remain
unvaccinated is not secure.
A country where fake drugs circulate
is not secure.
A country where mothers and children
die preventable deaths is not secure.
A country where leaders flee abroad
for medical care while citizens die at home is not secure.
Mr. President, Renewed Hope cannot be
treated abroad.
Renewed Hope cannot breathe in a
hospital without oxygen.
Renewed Hope cannot survive in a
clinic without medicine.
Renewed Hope cannot stand in an
emergency room without trained hands.
Renewed Hope cannot be preached by
leaders who trust foreign hospitals more than the Nigerian health system they
govern.
As you seek a second term from
Nigerians, this is where the question must begin.
What has truly changed in Nigeria’s
health system under your leadership?
Can ordinary Nigerians feel it?
Can poor Nigerians afford it?
Can doctors and nurses see a future in
it?
Can hospitals function without
darkness?
Can emergency patients receive care
without delay?
Can your cabinet confidently use the
same public hospitals ordinary Nigerians depend on?
Can your administration proudly say it
has reduced the need for medical tourism?
Can Nigeria say that the billions lost
to foreign hospitals are now being redirected into building hospitals at home?
If the answer is not yet clear, then
the work is not yet done.
Nigeria does not need more
health-sector ceremonies. Nigeria needs functioning hospitals.
Nigeria does not need more speeches
about reform. Nigeria needs emergency rooms that save lives.
Nigeria does not need leaders who
praise the system in public and escape it in private.
Nigeria needs leaders who are willing
to build what they themselves can trust.
Because until Nigerian leaders are
willing to receive care from the system they supervise, their promises will
continue to sound far away from the pain of the people.
Renewed Hope must become renewed
health.
And renewed health must begin at home.
This is not hatred.
This is not opposition for the sake of
opposition.
This is a patriotic warning.
This is a good-faith challenge.
This is a call for the President to
remember his promises and deliver what Nigerians deserve.
Because in the end, leadership is not
measured by how many times hope is spoken.
Leadership is measured by how many
lives that hope is able to touch.
Dr. Nana Akaeze
This is my voice. This
is my belief.
Closing Quote:
A nation that cannot heal its people cannot claim to have renewed their hope. —
Dr. Nana Akaeze
References
Guardian Nigeria. (2026, April
25). Medical tourism and the $550m question.
https://guardian.ng/opinion/editorial/medical-tourism-and-the-550m-question/
National Health Insurance Authority.
(2024). Advancing health insurance through the Renewed Hope Agenda and
the Sector Renewal Initiative.
Ndili, N., & Olugbile, F. (2025,
July 22). Nigeria’s long history of medical tourism at the top. Vanguard.
Premium Times. (2025, June 4). Midterm
scorecard: Nigeria’s health sector remains fragile despite Tinubu’s efforts.
https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/798686-midterm-scorecard-nigerias-health-sector-remains-fragile-despite-tinubus-efforts.html
Punch Editorial Board. (2026, March
3). Nigeria’s unsustainable medical tourism. Punch Newspapers.
https://punchng.com/nigerias-unsustainable-medical-tourism/
State House, Abuja. (2023, December
12). President Tinubu unveils plan for massive investments in the
health sector, says healthcare is back on the front burner.
Tunji, S. (2025, July 21). Nigerians
spent over $3.6bn annually on foreign healthcare under Buhari. PUNCH.
U.S. Department of State. (2026, April
8). Nigeria Travel Advisory: Level 3—Reconsider Travel.
Citation for The Awake
Voice and Facebook Posts:
Akaeze, N. (2026, May 20). Renewed Hope Cannot Be Treated Abroad:
Nigeria’s Fragile Health System, Medical Tourism, and the Leadership Question. The
Awake Voice.
#TheAwakeVoice #DrNanaAkaeze
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