Sotunsa: Brain Drain Can be a Blessing to Africa if Well Managed

Prof. John Sotunsa is the provost of Ben Carson College of Health and Medical Science, Babcock University, and the Chief Executive Officer of Global Vision Support International Foundation. He explained to Funmi Ogundare why Nigeria has to effectively manage some of the challenges confronting it so that the country can turn its fortunes around, among other issues. Excerpts:

How do you juggle your roles as provost, surgeon, pastor, and chief executive officer of Global Vision Support International Foundation?

I have a principle: it’s one day at a time. You plan out your schedule and try to follow it as much as you can.

What are some of the challenges you face at the medical college?

It is about creating a new scenario. My goal is that every graduate of our school should be internationally competitive, so what it means is that we are not only going to meet the local demands but also meet the international requirements such that once our graduates leave here, skills and academic wise, they will be on top. Much more, we are placing a lot of emphasis on research because research is answering unanswered questions. So with that, wherever you get to, you will know how to find solutions to problems that you didn’t even premeditate that they will exist. With all those, it’s bringing in new dynamics to what we do and bringing that to the level of the Gen-Z people who are very dynamic and fluid in their way of life.

What is the cost of research to you?

It is not just about doing research for research’s sake but to solve a problem. What are the problems that exist? What really makes those problems exist, and how do we get out of the problem? You don’t have the answer that is why it is a research and I ask people to look at their resources, develop tools and get information. From the input of people, you will be able to come up with ideas that, if we do it in one way or another, will work. That can be applied in every phase of life, and that is how it’s going to work, and that is what we want our doctors to be able to do.

What is your view about research generally in Nigeria: are we there yet?

We are not there yet due to several factors responsible for that. One of the factors is mentorship. When you have good mentors, they are meant to help you develop the desire, discipline and commitment because research is not fun. It requires total commitment, concentration and tenacity that will make you not give up because sometimes it could be challenging. If you have good mentors, they will help you appreciate integrity. For instance, there is a work we are doing on ‘intimate partner violence and perionatal mental illness and pregnancy outcome and the role of partner involvement in pregnancy care’. How does it affect the outcome of pregnancy in the light of intimate partner violence and perionatal mental illness? When we look at the literature, physical intimate partner violence has a greater prevalence of 50 per cent in some of the studies. 

So we used that, and we got a sample size that was a little bit less than 1,000. However, when we went into the field, we found out that the women we were dealing with were totally different from those ones. They are more educated. About 87 per cent had secondary school and tertiary education, and 95 per cent were gainfully employed, unlike the 30 to 50 per cent of the data that we used. In the long run, we found out that the problem that we thought was colossal was small within the subset. The perinatal mental illness that we were seeing was just about 5.1 per cent. So, if you have not learnt discipline and integrity, you will wonder how the work you have done has been a waste. So that is where you need mentorship so that you would be able to move on.

People often complain there is poor funding for research. What do you think?

It is because we don’t know what research really is. Most of the time, we want to do what we want, the way we like, and expect people to fund what you think is right. I put my money where I think is relevant to me and to my establishment. So that is why if you are a researcher, your major job is to look out for things that will be of interest to the funders. So I can now release my money to fund the research. For instance, there is a study that has to do with breast cancer, and an idea came that when breast cancer fully develops, it becomes a problem. Here we do radiotherapy, but how many radiotherapy centres do we have in Nigeria? There are very few and it’s very expensive. 

When it comes to chemotherapy, they are available here, but very expensive. When it comes to some of the tumours we are seeing now they will require the newer generation medications which will cost millions. But come to think about it, why should we wait until it is fully blown? The idea we are toiling with has to do with the male partner. Almost 90 per cent of women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer in Nigeria have a male partner. He has to help in examining the woman’s breast and ensure that the woman goes to the hospital immediately if she detects a lump. 

If this is done, we are going to have less of this problem. That is why the key to preventing breast cancer is early diagnosis. You can not get it early, except somebody identifies it early. The woman should also do a self-breast examination. So much noise has been made about it, but less than 13 per cent of women do it regularly and consistently. When research is relevant to the people, funders will be ready to break their banks.

Since you started your foundation, what impact has it made, and how would you describe it?

The objective of the foundation is making a difference. As a foundation, we do several things. Firstly, we do a lot of youth and women empowerment. The main thing we do for youth empowerment is computer literacy, and we help young people appreciate the use of the system. The young man directing the programme now also benefitted from it and has completed his undergraduate programme and we have a lot of young people who have gone through our programme. Apart from that, we also do direct scholarships, as well as medical outreaches. For instance, in December, we were in Iperu, Ogun State, where we were able to see 1,600 people over a one-week-long programme and did 83 free fibroid surgeries and 85 minor surgeries. We are going to extend our medical outreach to Osun State from March 24 to 31. The next one will be in Ibadan, Oyo State, from April 8 to 13, and we are going to be doing the same thing we did in Iperu.

What challenges have you faced over the years?

We have had a few people who had infection and were able to treat it. Another had a humongous fibroid. Whenever you have such, it displaces a lot of the other strictures in the body. 

Looking ahead, what are your plans for the less privileged in society?

One main thing I desire for the less privileged is ‘The Vision College’ concept. I took that out from my background and Adventist philosophy of education. The philosophy states that you train the head, hand and heart. The head is so that you are able to think outside the box and find a solution. The hand is so that you are ready to work and make a difference, and the heart is so that you are compassionate and empathic. In my own background, my parents were very poor, but when I became an Adventist in 1983, my old teacher, who is presently in the UK, taught my class as a kid. She has always stressed the need for us to use our hands to work. 

She taught us that once you do your normal duty, ask your parent for a little work, and as you do it, they pay you, and from the little they pay you, you turn in your tithe and church offering. 

When things got pretty bad in the family, I pleaded with my father to allow me to work. Had it not been for that, I wouldn’t have done my school certificate exam and would not have gone to school. So what we are doing now is that we are setting up the vision college, our goal is to take 100 young people into JS I every year. They will be with us for six years. We will take care of their feeding, books and other expenses. We plan to start that in Ogun State. As soon as we build up the structures, we are going to start taking in pupils. 

The beauty of this is that I have sponsored a lot of people in school in our current system through my social capital, and when they are done, they get jobs. That is the beauty of NGO work. Right in the school, we teach them what to do. Some can work in the agric sector, for instance, and ensure a division of labour, and before you know it, they are earning money. Some could also be good at marketing. They can sit on their computers and make sure that customers are interested in what their friends are producing, and by the time they are done with school, they are skilled. So they don’t need to wait for employment. Unemployment does not exist. 

Under your watch, many doctors have had to seek greener pastures abroad. What is your view about brain drain, and what do you think should be the way forward?

Brain drain can be a great blessing to Africa if well utilised. When you go back to developmental history and the developmental economy, take India as an example. India also experienced what we experienced some years back. It depends on the way you do it. If you come from a family that you feel that you are not wanted, you will not come back. But when you belong to a family, and you feel that you are missing the warmth, you will come back. 

At a time, every nation will go through challenges such as poor leadership and insecurity, among others, but these are things we need to work on. It’s a phase. How we manage it is what makes the difference. If, for instance, the people who are leaving have that belonging, this is not a problem because when they get there, they are sending resources back home, and we are able to develop some more things. They also see new technologies in the Western world, learn from them and are able to move on and establish something in their countries. That was how big hospitals in India came to be, and sometimes, they have a new management structure, put cases together, come back home, train the local people and empower them to be able to do it. 

That is why brain drain can be brain gain. It’s just a matter of how we manage it. Can you imagine! If all Nigerians are here, what do you think will happen? Will this be a good country? With the population that we have, brain drain can become brain gain. The only thing is that we have to re-engineer it. How do Cuba and the Philippines survive? Most of their health and engineering workers are sent out, and they repatriate funds home, and they are surviving.