By; NICHOLAS DEKERA, Kaduna
In a bid to raise enrollment for Medical Sciences in Nigeria, parents of girls from Northern Nigeria have been tasked on providing an enabling environment irrespective of insecurity for women to study medical sciences.
Fielding questions from newsmen on Wednesday, Dr. Aishatu Yusha’u Armiya’u who narrated how she as a Northern woman became a medical doctor and rose to become an Associate Professor of Psychiatry, via enabling environment, said so many Northern young ladies are willing to take up medical sciences but many factors including insecurity have dashed their hopes.
“The imbalance in school enrollment amongst boys and girls at a time was almost equal, because the boys were more into farming and others but with the incessant kidnapping of school girls in Chibok, Kagara and many others, parents prefer to marry their girls out.
“Absolutely we need more women in the field of mental health because the task is huge and mental health is a major priority. There is the need for gender balance and gender equity. Therefore, there is need to encourage more women, provide role models in psychiatry and give them the chance,” Dr. Aishatu stressed.
Speaking further she said, “Also, some Northern communities’ which have come under attacks and now in IDP camps can’t further their studies because of the poor life styles in those camps.”
Dr. Aishatu Yusha’u Armiya’u who lectures in Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) Bauchi, added that, “people are leaving the country with massive brain drain. Brain drain is worse than before and addressing the problem of doctor to patient ratio is huge. As a psychiatrist we have a ratio of about 1:1,000, 000 which is not the ideal for WHO standards. As a country, we need to look at what is drawing attention of our medical personnel abroad to see what can be done to avert the trend. As a passionate and patriotic Nigerian, training doctors to travel abroad and work is not nice. We therefore, need to address the gaps to keep our workforce back home and save our humanity.”
On major breakthroughs in medical sciences, Dr. Aishatu Yusha’u Armiya’u revealed that her ability to break into a profession that is male dominated should inspire women and girls that they can succeed in broad field of medicine and specialty of psychiatry.
“My effort is to create a gender sensitive and responsive environment where I teach and train undergraduate and postgraduate students and in other fora. My role in forensic psychiatry, working with persons with mental health challenges who have problems with law,” she declared.
