The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has faulted recent remarks by popular Pastor and founder of The Covenant Nation, Poju Oyemade, about the cost of medical education in the country.

The group described his claims about Nigeria’s medical education system as “a misunderstanding of the country’s healthcare realities.”

In a viral sermon clip shared on X, Mr Oyemade suggested that Nigerian medical doctors are ungrateful by leaving the country for greener pastures abroad, despite spending as little as “N500,000” on their training.

The pastor compared this with the United States, where medical education reportedly costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, yet Nigerian-trained doctors still excel abroad.

But in a statement on X responding to the video on Monday, NARD dismissed the claim as inaccurate and misleading.

“Contrary to your claim, no medical doctor is trained on ₦500,000,” the association wrote, citing a 2021 peer-reviewed study published in the Pan African Medical Journal, which estimates the cost of becoming a doctor in Nigeria to range between $21,000 and $51,000 when tuition, living expenses, and other academic costs are considered.

Mr Oyemade further told his congregation that Nigerians often fail to appreciate local opportunities and prefer to complain.

He narrated how he once challenged a group of Nigerians abroad who criticised the country, urging them to “understand their terrain” and channel their energy into building the nation rather than leaving it.

“In Nigeria, a person will graduate as a medical doctor and spend N500,000 throughout to become a doctor. In America, you graduate from Johns Hopkins, you graduate from Harvard as a doctor, and you spend $2,000. Are you okay? Do you know how much money you spend?” he said.

Mr Oyemade added that Nigerians condemn doing multiple jobs at home but go abroad to do the same, arguing that if the effort they put into working abroad is put into working in Nigeria, they would be successful.

“Nigerians are ungrateful. They will go through everything, including education. How much do they spend there? You see a Nigerian, if they tell him in Nigeria to do two jobs, he will curse your life out,” he said.

The pastor also downplayed Nigeria’s unemployment statistics, suggesting that many informal business owners earn large sums without paying taxes and should not be considered unemployed.

However, NARD insists that such narratives ignore the major issues like chronic underfunding of the health sector, poor welfare, and a massive brain drain caused by inadequate pay and lack of infrastructure.

According to the group, while it costs an average of $275,000 to train a doctor in the US, the system rewards that investment with a monthly salary of about $16,000.

In contrast, a Nigerian doctor earns roughly N250,000 ($170) despite investing heavily in their education. Families often spend over $10,000 just to help these doctors relocate and qualify for practice abroad.

“This is not about ingratitude—Nigerian doctors are among the most hardworking and resilient globally,” NARD said.

“While the health system is in a state of crisis, many citizens cannot afford medical tourism. It is easy for Pastors with access to tithes and offerings to seek care abroad, but their average Nigerian church member cannot.”

NARD also urged Mr Oyemade to use his influence to advocate for health sector reforms, rather than blaming the professionals.

“We urge you to speak truth to power and advocate for a better health system; Nigeria currently ranks 142nd out of 195 globally.”

“It may be worth considering the Apostles’ model—focusing on prayer, fasting, and the Word—rather than ‘serving tables,” it noted.

Mr Oyemade has not issued a formal response to the backlash.

The clash comes amid ongoing conversations about the exodus of Nigerian professionals, particularly in the medical field.

Recently, the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Pate, revealed that Nigeria has lost over 16,000 doctors in the last five to seven years, a situation that has cost the country billions of naira.

The exchange between NARD and Mr Oyemade sparked a debate on social media, with many Nigerians weighing in to clarify the realities of medical education in the country.

Several X users suggest NARD’s response was misrepresentative of the actual cost of medical education.

One of the voices that joined the conversation was the Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Social Media, Dada Olusegun, who faulted NARD’s figures, asking: “Dear NARD, which public university do students pay between $21,000 to $54,000 in Nigeria to study Medicine? This is just a sad attempt at shifting the goal post.”

A user, Oguntoye Opeyemi, argued that the pastor’s remarks were not an attack on medical professionals but rather an attempt to highlight how government investment in public education has benefited sectors like healthcare.

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Citing personal experience at LAUTECH, Mr Opeyemi said it was misleading to claim Nigerian medical students pay up to $21,000 for their training, noting that tuition during his time never exceeded N40,000 per session, with total annual costs staying well below N200,000.

Similarly, another user, Oreoluwa, questioned the source of NARD’s cost estimate, pointing out that the real issue raised by the pastor was who bears the cost of subsidised training.

She stressed that while working conditions for doctors are indeed difficult, that should not be conflated with the affordability of their education.

She called on NARD to continue advocacy work without dismissing the opportunities made possible through Nigeria’s public system.

Another user, Fola Kareem, a Nigerian based in the United States, said NARD had missed the main point of the pastor’s message by turning it into an economic argument.

Mr Kareem described the association’s position as a misrepresentation that ignored the context of the pastor’s statement.