I am a medical student in Nigeria.
 

         Even before we get our first job as a doctor many of us Nigerian medical students have already made up our minds.
 

         Not about what kind of doctor we want to be.

         Not about where we want to work as a doctor.
         About whether we think we can have a good life as a doctor in Nigeria.
         This is not something we learn in class. It is what we talk about in our hostels after studying at night. After our exams are postponed again or after another strike by our teachers or when our semester is extended again in federal universities, we say things like "When will things get better?"
 

         Some contend that Nigerian medical students want to leave the country because we are selfish or because we do not love our country or because we just want to make a lot of money.

 

         That is not the truth.
 

         The truth is that we are not running away from Nigeria. We are slowly losing trust in the system that is training us to be doctors.

         In school we are taught to be strong and to keep going but in reality we are learning to survive in a system that does not work well. 

         When we start working with patients we see that they deserve more care than what we can give them. The hospitals are too crowded we do not have equipment and the power often goes out.
 

         We have to make do with what we have, not because our teachers are not trying—but because the hospitals do not have the resources they need to provide adequate care. For example:
 

         Nobody talks about how this affects us emotionally. We get tired and frustrated. We are always afraid that we will fail because we have too much work to do. We are not sure if we will pass our exams.
 

         By the time we get to the part of our training where we work with patients something has changed. We do not ask ourselves "Where do I want to work as a doctor?" anymore. We start asking, "Where can I use my training to get a life?"
 

         That is when we start making plans to leave.
         It is important to say that Nigerian medical students are not afraid of work. We already work hard. We study at night we volunteer, we stay in the hospital longer than we have to. We deal with a lot of pressure that people outside of medicine do not understand. 

         What we are tired of is not knowing what will happen next because the government does not take responsibility.
 

         When our training takes longer than it should. We do not get a good explanation and we have to pay for the mistakes of the system and there is nobody to help us when we get too tired something inside of us breaks.
         We start to think about having a life somewhere else.
         We imagine a place where our training is respected where we know what to expect and where our well-being is important.
         We start getting ready.
 

         The funny thing is that we are getting ready while we are still in schools. We are trained here. 

         Our minds are set on leaving.
 

         After we graduate, many young doctors face the problems again. They work in conditions they do not get paid on time and they do not have the support they need. It is not surprising that groups like the Nigerian Medical Association are worried about the welfare of doctors. For us students this is not just a problem for the future. We can see it happening now. We see the doctors who are already working. We see how hard it is for them. So when people say, "Doctors are leaving the country" it seems like it happens suddenly.
         It does not.
 

         We make the decision to leave long before we graduate. It happens slowly as we take our exams and see how things are.

 

         Another truth that is hard to hear is that the way we are trained is still old-fashioned. It has not been modernized to fit the ways of teaching and learning and it does not take care of our well-being especially in federal universities.
 

         In other parts of the world, doctors are trained using new methods, like simulation and they have mentors and time to study and support for their mental health. These things are not luxuries anymore they are necessary as groups like the World Health Organization know. In Nigeria many students still have to rely on working in hospitals and sacrificing themselves to make up for the gaps in the system. It makes us very tired.
         Tired people eventually look for ways to make more money.
         When people talk about doctors leaving the country they often ask how we can stop them.
 

         That is not the real question.
 

         The real question is:
         “Why do doctors feel that staying in Nigeria is not safe for their careers, their stability and their mental health?”
 

         It is easy to tell doctors to love their country. It is harder to build a system that takes care of them when they choose to stay.
         We do not expect everything to be perfect. We want consistency and structure and respect for our time and well-being. We want a system that listens to us.
         Because being a doctor is not about knowing medicine. It is about how we become the people we're while we are learning.
 

         Many of us genuinely want to work and help our healthcare system. Hope needs action, not just words. It needs leaders who care and investment not in buildings and equipment but in people who can make a difference.
         If Nigeria wants to stop its doctors from leaving, it needs to start in the classrooms in the hospitals in the way we are treated as human beings.
 

         At this point it is what it is.
 

         We are not asking for a time, in medical school.
 

         We are asking for one.

 

         Until fairness becomes part of our training culture many Nigerian medical students will continue to prepare, quietly and carefully for a life they never planned to live outside of Nigeria.