In March 2024, Muhammad Pate, Nigeria’s health minister, disclosed that about 16,000 doctors left the country in the last five years. The General Medical Council of the UK revealed that no fewer than 12,198 Nigerian doctors are in the United Kingdom. Several others are in the US, Europe, Asia, and other parts of the world.
However, despite Nigeria’s poor healthcare system, the Federal Government and 21 states have allocated merely N3.846 trillion for healthcare in their 2025 budgets. This amount represents only 6.02% of the proposed N63.898 trillion for the year. The allocation falls significantly short of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommendation of 13% and the African Union’s Abuja 2001 Declaration target of 15%.
And while the majority of Nigerians grapple with decaying healthcare, the recent revelation that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu approved an extravagant retirement package for top military officials has sparked a nationwide debate, raising critical questions about governance priorities, fiscal responsibility, and the plight of ordinary Nigerians.
Under the revised Harmonised Terms and Conditions of Service (HTCOS) for the Nigerian Armed Forces, the retirement benefits for service chiefs and other senior military officers include bullet-proof SUVs, $20,000 annual foreign medical allowances, personal aides, and a range of domestic staff.
Signed into effect on December 14, 2024, these provisions have drawn fire from various quarters, including medical professionals, civil society organisations, and concerned citizens. Critics argue that the lavish perks symbolise a troubling disconnect between the government’s actions and the dire socioeconomic conditions plaguing Nigeria.
Recently Nigerians were inundated with reports that the University College Hospital (UCH) Ibadan was under a spell of darkness and water shortage that belie its pedigree as a top-notch medical centre for the training of doctors, healthcare delivery and research; a narrative that reflects the lack of serious attention to the health sector, and life itself, in Nigeria.
Premium Times in a 2024 Editorial, wrote: “Our public hospitals cannot be ‘mere consulting clinics or human abattoirs…The UCH must be made to recover its groove, which made it a hospital of first choice for members of the Royal family of the oil-rich Saudi Arabia in the 1960s and ranked the fourth best in the Commonwealth then. However, the truth is that this can only happen if President Bola Tinubu’s administration stops its binge of misplaced priorities. The N15 trillion 700-kilometre Lagos–Calabar coastal Highway and Sokoto to Badagry coastal highway – which is longer than the former and which has also been commissioned – provide pungent contexts of this.”
In 2024, only five states — Kaduna, Yobe, Kano, Bauchi, and Abia — allocated 15 percent of their budgets to healthcare. Others allocated between three and 12 percent. At the federal government level, only 4.6 percent of the 2024 budget was allotted to the health sector. From 2008 to 2021, the health allocations were less than five percent of total budgets in Africa’s most populous nation.
As of now, 33 of the 36 states have unveiled their budgets, with only Imo, Kwara, and Rivers yet to do so. Out of these, 21 states have disclosed their healthcare budget allocations, based on information from their websites and statements made by their governors in their Houses of Assembly.
Among the 21 states, only five — Kano (16.50%), Kaduna (16.07%), Borno (15.39%), Benue (15.09%), and Abia (15%) — have met both the WHO and African Union healthcare funding benchmarks. Ogun (13%) also met the WHO’s recommendation. In contrast, the Federal Government’s allocation of N2.48 trillion for healthcare in its N47.9 trillion 2025 budget amounts to just 5.18% of the total proposed spending.
Some states have allocated significantly lower percentages to healthcare, including Bayelsa (2.77%), Delta (3.12%), Cross River (4.22%), and Enugu (4.72%). Other states with relatively low allocations include Anambra (9.39%), Ebonyi (9.84%), Lagos (6.79%), Ondo (7%), Oyo (8.76%), and Gombe (10%).
Here is a breakdown of healthcare allocations in the 21 states:
Abia: N750.28 billion total budget, N38.6 billion for healthcare
Anambra: N607.992 billion total budget, N57.1 billion for healthcare
Enugu: N971.8 billion total budget, N45.016 billion for healthcare
Lagos: N3.005 trillion total budget, N204.005 billion for healthcare
Ondo: N655.23 billion total budget, N46.016 billion for healthcare
Oyo: N678.087 billion total budget, N59.411 billion for healthcare
Borno: N584.76 billion total budget, N89.97 billion for healthcare
Gombe: N320.11 billion total budget, N32 billion for healthcare
Bayelsa: N689.4 billion total budget, N19.1 billion for healthcare
Cross River: N498 billion total budget, N21 billion for healthcare
Delta: N979.2 billion total budget, N30.55 billion for healthcare
Edo: N605 billion total budget, N63.9 billion for healthcare
Jigawa: N693.3 billion total budget, N40.1 billion for healthcare
Kaduna: N790 billion total budget, N127 billion for healthcare
Kano: N549.1 billion total budget, N90.6 billion for healthcare
Katsina: N692.245 billion total budget, N43.882 billion for healthcare
Zamfara: N545.015 billion total budget, N64.384 billion for healthcare
Benue: N550 billion total budget, N83 billion for healthcare
Nasarawa: N382.57 billion total budget, N36.2 billion for healthcare
A Breakdown of the Generals’ perks according to Atlantic Post.
The HTCOS outlines an extensive list of retirement benefits for senior military officers, reflecting a hierarchy of privilege. The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) and service chiefs are entitled to bullet-proof SUVs, maintained and replaced every four years, in addition to a backup Peugeot 508 or its equivalent.
These vehicles come with a full suite of support, including three service drivers and an orderly. Retired service chiefs are also provided with five domestic aides, including two cooks, two stewards, and a civilian gardener.
Medical benefits are equally generous. While lieutenant generals are entitled to $20,000 for annual medical treatment abroad, it is speculated that service chiefs receive significantly higher allowances. These perks extend to include local and international security escorts, personal firearms (retrievable upon death), and retention of military uniforms for ceremonial occasions.
For lower-ranking generals, such as major generals and brigadier generals, the benefits slightly taper off but remain substantial. They include Toyota Land Cruisers or equivalent vehicles, domestic staff, and annual medical allowances ranging from $10,000 to $15,000. Even colonels are entitled to free domestic medical care and Toyota Corollas.
The Healthcare Irony: A Vote of No Confidence?
Perhaps the most contentious aspect of these benefits is the foreign medical allowance. Medical professionals and civil society leaders have criticised the government for institutionalising medical tourism, which they argue reflects a profound lack of confidence in Nigeria’s healthcare system.
Prof. Bala Audu, President of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), lambasted the decision, stating, “Any retirement benefits received by government officials should be invested within Nigeria.”
Echoing this sentiment, Prof. Muhammad Muhammad of the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) emphasised the need to revamp Nigeria’s healthcare infrastructure.
“The decision to send retired officers abroad for treatment signals the government’s lack of faith in our local healthcare facilities,” Prof. Muhammad noted.
This critique highlights a glaring contradiction: while the government is willing to spend exorbitantly on foreign medical care for elites, millions of Nigerians struggle to access basic healthcare services. Dr. Tope Osundara, President of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), argued that Nigeria possesses the medical expertise required to meet these needs but suffers from inadequate funding and outdated infrastructure.
Governance or Gluttony?
The timing of these extravagant benefits is particularly troubling. Nigeria is grappling with an economic crisis marked by soaring inflation, a depreciating naira, and widespread poverty. Millions of Nigerians live on less than $1.90 a day, yet resources are being channelled into luxury perks for a privileged few.
Friday Odeh, Country Director of Accountability Lab Nigeria, described the development as “alarming.” He questioned whether the retiring service chiefs have earned such rewards, given the ongoing security challenges plaguing the nation.
“For over 12 years, Nigeria has been battling insurgency, banditry, and kidnapping. Have the service chiefs truly delivered enough to justify these packages?” Odeh asked.
