FLASHBACK: Two years ago, Ngige lied over surplus doctors in Nigeria

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Mr Chris Ngige, has again been in the news over his comment on non payment of Doctors in United States and United Kingdom. 

He said in an interview with on Channels Television, that resident doctors in foreign countries pay the hospitals where they work while in Nigeria the reverse is the case.

Mr Ngige was, however, knocked for his comments by the Nigerian Medical Association for the erroneous claim. 

This newspaper recalled that in April 2019, the Minster also falsely claimed that Nigeria has surplus doctors during the health workers strike. 

But as at when the claim was made, research revealed that the country had a total of 42,845 medical practitioners out of which 39,912 are medical doctors.

The total population of Nigeria as at April 2019 was 199,961,971.

A fact check hub, checked the correctness of his statement and  realised that the country has a ratio of one doctor to about 5010 patients. 

However, the World Health Organisation (WHO) put the ratio of doctor to patient at 1 doctor to 600 patients. 

For Nigeria to meet this standard, the nation is expected to have 333,270 medical doctors (As at 2019 when the claim was made). 

He was also condemned then by the NMA for lying during a live broadcast show.