Army to prioritise training to curb medical brain drain
Brig.-Gen. Innocent Enwuchola, Commander Corps of Medical (CCM) for the Nigerian Army, on Wednesday said he would focus on prioritising training and welfare for medical personnel to guard against brain drain of medical experts within the military.
Enwuchola said this at the CCM’s First Quarter Conference 2026 with the theme: “Optimising NA Resources for Excellent Healthcare Delivery Within A Joint Environment”, which held at Bonny Cantonment, Victoria Island, Lagos State.
Enwuchola highlighted that the army was taking decisive steps to retain its talent.
According to him, following resolutions from the December 2025 annual conference, the leadership is currently reviewing the salary structures for army medical personnel to enhance service delivery and boost morale across the corps.
“I took over the command of the corps on Oct. 31, 2025 and since then, I’ve not had a conference with all my commanders on the field.
“We scheduled today to have that conference, to have a robust discussion and to tackle all the challenges within the corps.
“Brain drain is primarily people emigrating to other countries for a better pay and once the salaries of medical personnel are enhanced, our people will stay,” he said.
Enwuchola said that the Nigerian Army Medical Corps had continued to improve capacity building of its personnel, institutions and medical systems to provide a conducive working environment.
“A better working environment will also stimulate our medical experts and personnel to stay.
“In fact, these developments have begun to yield positive results because we now have more doctors and medical personnel who have replaced those that have left,” he said.
The commander said that more nurses and doctors would be trained to make available more hands in the medical field.
“We have so many doctors doing residency programs right now. Last year, about 12 of them were released and this year, more will be released,” he said.
Enwuchola said that he was confident and optimistic about the availability of more military medical experts and personnel to combat the effect of brain drain.
