18/11/2025
THE HARD TRUTH, the hard reality;
“When God wants to make a man powerful, He doesn't crown him first; He breaks him. First, He strips away your comfort, your pride, your plans, until all that's left is what's real. That isn't punishment, that's training.”
Please be careful not to interpret this as God is going to break you to make you great for your own glory and fame.
Nigerian Resident Doctors are some of the most resilient souls you can find anywhere.
They’re Patriotic, decent family men and women.
The roughness of medical school, house job, NYSC and residency training means you will literally be writing exams for 25 to 30 years from Primary School till the end of your training to become a consultant. In addition, the larger Nigerian economic realities lay on your bed with you every step of the way.
The resident Doctor will still be on call to save lives with exhaustion, improvisation, grit, fortitude, fear of failure, work place and residency related bullying, his consultant’s ego, his patient’s mistrust, under equipped hospitals with no power, an ungrateful Government, and YES, PATRIOTISM.
His parents spend fortunes to put him/her through school. The Government spends fortunes to provide facilities for training. Naturally, that resident doctor wants to graduate and serve his country while also taking care of his parents.
Every Resident Doctor wants to achieve this by investing his youth, belief and loyalty into the Nigerian system. The only glue that keeps the resident Doctor to this dream is the glue made from PATRIOTISM.
Unfortunately, Patriotism doesn’t pay school fees or put food on the table. It doesn’t pay rent or pay examination fees. At least not in Nigeria. And it certainly won’t take care of your parents or children in their times of need.
There is no better analogy to God’s plan of preparing men and women for tasks beyond themselves like the story of the resident doctor in Nigeria.
Even when you strike, protest, give ultimatums, cry out, shout at the top of your lungs and even die, nothing is heard, nothing is done. You get paid peanuts and asked to resume back to work.
And when a resident Doctor eventually makes the ultimate sacrifice, Nigeria is certain it will produce more doctors to replace those who have now become only statistics and relegated to the annals of arguments.
After all, Nigeria Produces tons of Doctors and bleeds them unpatriotically to other countries.
Let us all remember, dear distinguished resident doctors, some of us will not be here to lead forever. Some other of us will have to step up to lead the rest of us and lead us like Lions.
“Doctors are lions, no sheep can lead them. To lead Doctors, you must be a lion. We are all lions.”
For those who choose to remain in Nigeria, let us continue to rally around the 19-Point demand of NARD.
Those who choose to JAPA, kindly do us the favor of genuinely consulting our leaders who also JAPA for medical tourism just to see your UNPATRIOTIC consulting faces abroad.
As for me, I remain committed to the struggle as directed by the National Executive Council of NARD
As Always,
P-MUS of NARD
