Insecurity Keeps Nigerian Healthcare Professional Away From Home

Insecurity Keeps Nigerian Healthcare Professional Away From Home

Princess-Ekwi Ajide

A Nigerian healthcare professional living in the United States, Nkechi Eze, says fear of kidnapping, violent attacks and unsafe roads has kept her from visiting home for years, warning that insecurity is also crippling healthcare delivery and undermining public confidence in Nigeria’s institutions.

For Nkechi Eze, returning to Nigeria is more than booking a flight.

It means confronting a question she cannot easily answer: can she and her children travel around the country, visit family and return safely?

Despite living in the United States, the Nigerian-born healthcare professional says her emotional connection to home remains strong, with family ties keeping her deeply concerned about the country’s future.

But insecurity, particularly kidnapping, violent attacks and unsafe road travel, has continued to stand between her and a return visit.

Eze says her decision to stay away is not a reflection of diminished love for Nigeria but a difficult choice driven by her responsibility to protect her family.

She believes meaningful improvements in security must go beyond official assurances, insisting that Nigerians and those in the diaspora need reliable information about the safety of specific communities and travel routes.

For her, a safer Nigeria would mean roads people can use without fear, fewer kidnappings, responsive emergency services and credible investigations that bring perpetrators to justice.

Her concerns extend beyond personal safety.

As a healthcare professional, Eze is particularly troubled by attacks on medical workers, arguing that those who leave their homes to save lives should not have to risk kidnapping or death in the process.

She warns that insecurity has consequences for the entire healthcare system, as patients may avoid travelling at night, health workers may struggle to reach facilities and ambulances may be unable to access dangerous routes.

The situation, she says, can be especially devastating for pregnant women experiencing emergencies, accident victims and patients requiring urgent referral to specialist hospitals.

She also identifies the financial burden of emergency treatment as another challenge, noting that delays in securing money, transportation or an available hospital can worsen medical conditions.

Drawing from her experience in the United States, Eze says what distinguishes the country’s approach to public safety is not the absence of crime but the greater sense of predictability and confidence in established response systems.

She acknowledges that the US is not crime-free but believes its more formal procedures for reporting incidents and conducting investigations offer lessons Nigeria can adapt.

She urges Nigerian authorities to take reports of missing persons, attacks and threats seriously, irrespective of the victims’ social status or connections.

On tackling banditry, kidnapping and farmer-herder conflicts, Eze cautions against treating every security challenge as though it has the same cause or requires a single solution.

She advocates intelligence-led operations, better coordination among security agencies, properly equipped and supervised local policing structures, stronger investigations and more effective prosecution.

She also calls for investment in education, employment opportunities and fair dispute-resolution mechanisms, alongside respect for human rights to strengthen public trust.

According to her, the effectiveness of security policies should be measured by what ordinary Nigerians can actually do without fear.

Can farmers return to their farmlands? Can nurses work night shifts safely? Can families travel to visit loved ones? And when someone is kidnapped, do security agencies respond promptly?

These, she argues, are more meaningful indicators of progress than official declarations.

Credible Elections And Public Trust

Beyond insecurity, Eze believes Nigeria must strengthen its electoral system to restore public confidence in governance.

Reflecting on her experience voting in the United States, she describes the process as orderly and private, with clear procedures for voter identification, accreditation and ballot casting.

Although electoral methods differ across American states, she says the availability of verification and audit mechanisms helps make the process more transparent.

She acknowledges that concerns about violence and electoral malpractice in Nigeria are legitimate but insists that allegations must be investigated and established through evidence rather than assumptions.

For her, electoral institutions must do more to make results verifiable and explain disputed outcomes clearly to citizens.

She believes credible elections can improve accountability by giving voters the power to reward performing leaders or remove those who fail to deliver.

However, she cautions that elections alone cannot resolve insecurity or reverse the migration of skilled professionals.

Effective governance, responsible public spending, enforcement of laws and improved salaries and working conditions are equally important to retaining professionals and rebuilding public services.

Eze also supports extending voting rights to Nigerians in the diaspora, provided the process is backed by clear regulations, secure registration, reliable identity verification, safeguards against multiple voting and transparent counting procedures.

She, however, believes protecting the integrity of votes cast within Nigeria should remain an immediate priority.

On healthcare, she points to the United States’ emergency care framework, under which hospital emergency departments are required to screen and stabilise patients regardless of their immediate ability to pay, although bills may follow.

She argues that Nigeria must strengthen emergency response systems so that access to urgent medical attention is not delayed while patients or their families struggle to find money or locate a functioning hospital.

Ultimately, Eze’s message is that Nigerians should not have to choose between returning home and protecting their lives.

She wants a country where healthcare workers can serve without fear, families can travel safely, citizens can trust their elections and public institutions can be held accountable.

For a Nigerian living abroad who still longs to come home, the desire to return has not disappeared.

What remains uncertain is whether the country can provide the safety and confidence needed to make that journey.