The House of Representatives has strongly criticized Nigeria's tertiary health institutions, especially university teaching hospitals, for shifting away from their core mandate of medical research and instead functioning primarily as general hospitals focused on routine clinical services.
During Tuesday's 2026 budget defense session for Federal University Teaching Hospitals, Federal Teaching Hospitals, and Federal Medical Centres, Dr. Patrick Umoh, Chairman of the House Committee on Health Institutions, expressed deep concern over the trend.
He noted that these institutions have largely abandoned research and innovation, operating more like standard hospitals with minimal emphasis on advancing medical knowledge.
Dr. Umoh specifically called out Chief Medical Directors (CMDs) for dedicating less than 1% of their annual budgets to research and for failing to advocate consistently for such funding during budget planning.
He highlighted that the COVID-19 pandemic starkly revealed Nigeria's lack of preparedness in health research, pointing out that traditional medicine practitioners appeared more proactive than conventional medical experts during the crisis.
Responding on behalf of the Committee of Chief Medical Directors, Prof. Pokop Wushipba Bupwatda, Secretary of the committee and CMD of Jos University Teaching Hospital, explained that while approximately 1% of budgets is initially set aside for research, this allocation is frequently eliminated in the final budgeting stages.
He appealed for greater overall funding for the health sector to support recruitment of qualified staff, better welfare, and to curb the ongoing "japa syndrome" the mass exodus of healthcare professionals seeking opportunities abroad due to poor working conditions.
In a related development, Prof. Olalekan Asikhia, Vice-Chancellor of Caleb University, Imota, called on the Federal Government to significantly increase funding for research and innovation across Nigeria.
Speaking ahead of the university's 15th convocation ceremony, he stressed the need for a coherent national research policy integrated into university curricula and overseen by the National Universities Commission (NUC) with effective monitoring.
Prof. Asikhia emphasized that Nigeria must move beyond mere declarations and invest substantially in research to drive national development and address key challenges effectively.
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