…Pathologists demand urgent investment as brain-drain, poor working conditions threaten cancer careBy Chioma Obinna Nigeria has fewer than 200 practising pathologists serving a population of more than 200 million people, a development experts say is threatening accurate diagnosis, cancer care and the wider health system.
The specialists, who described pathology as the bedrock of modern medicine, warned that the country could face a deeper diagnostic crisis unless government urgently invests in training, infrastructure, technology and incentives to retain specialists. Speaking in Lagos at the 16th Annual General Meeting and Scientific Conference of the West African Division of the International Academy of Pathology, WADIAP, tagged EKOPATH ’26.
The three-day conference, which began on August 24 to 26th, has as its theme: “Future-Proofing Pathology in West Africa: Integrating Quality, Innovation, and Regional Synergy.” Speaking, President of WADIAP, Prof. Fatimah AbdulKareem, said current statistics showed that fewer than 200 pathologists were practising in Nigeria, with the situation worsening as young doctors showed little interest in pathology training and qualified specialists migrated abroad.
According to her, Nigeria had at some point trained about 800 pathologists, but the number currently practising in the country was far below that figure. “Right now in the country, the number that are in the country now, by the time we take the statistics, it may not be up to 200 pathologists that are left in the country,” she said. AbdulKareem said the country was facing a dangerous combination of inadequate recruitment and migration.
She cited the experience of Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, where an advertisement for residency training reportedly attracted only two interested applicants, yet none eventually resumed the programme. “Secondly, the ones that we are training, as they finish, as they qualify, they leave. Because they can easily get a job outside the country,” she said. The