Nigeria’s Healthcare Future Depends On Seeing Illness Earlier

Radiology is “the eye of medicine, according to General Godwin Ogoh, Chief Medical Director of the Nigerian Army Reference Hospital.

Nigeria is no longer a country planning for growth. It is a country already living inside it. In 1960, Nigeria’s population stood at just over 45 million. Today, it exceeds 230 million, making it Africa’s most populous nation and one of the fastest-growing large countries in the world. By mid-century, that number is expected to approach 400 million.

As Nigeria urbanises and life expectancy gradually rises, the country is experiencing an epidemiological shift. Infectious diseases remain a challenge, but non-communicable diseases, including cancer, are becoming more prevalent.

Oncology care is particularly unforgiving of delay. The difference between early and late diagnosis is often the difference between manageable treatment and irreversible progression. In practical terms, earlier diagnosis is usually less expensive for both households and the health system than treating advanced disease.

Nigeria’s advanced medical imaging infrastructure remains extremely limited for a population of its size. PET/CT scanners – a type of advanced scan that combines anatomical images with information on how tissues function, now standard for cancer diagnosis and staging in much of the world – are scarce. Most high-end diagnostic equipment is concentrated in Lagos, meaning that patients from other regions must travel long distances to access basic imaging.

In a country where roughly 65% of patients already travel more than 100 kilometres for diagnostic procedures, delays are built into the system by geography alone.

The human resource picture is even more constrained. As of the early 2020s, Nigeria counted only a handful of formally recognised specialists trained in nuclear medicine: three nuclear medicine physicians, nine medical physicists, and nine

radiography technologists nationwide. Thousands of healthcare vacancies coexist with high unemployment, not because jobs do not exist, but because specialised skills take time, infrastructure, and long-term investment to develop.

Radiology professionals in Nigeria are acutely aware of the stakes. At a World Radiography Day event in late November, Brigadier General Godwin Ogoh, Chief Medical Director of the Nigerian Army Reference Hospital, described radiology as “the eye of medicine” – the discipline that allows clinicians to see what cannot be detected through symptoms alone. Advances in imaging technologies, from MRI to AI-assisted diagnostics, have transformed medical decision-making globally.

However, without reliable equipment, trained staff, and proper maintenance, those advances remain out of reach for many Nigerian patients.

Nuclear medicine begins to look less like an advanced niche and more like a practical tool for system efficiency. By enabling earlier and more precise diagnosis, it reduces unnecessary procedures, shortens care pathways, and allows clinicians to prioritise treatment where it is most effective. Radioisotopes can selectively destroy diseased cells, down to microscopic metastases, while largely sparing healthy tissue. The effectiveness of targeted therapies offers renewed hope to millions of patients worldwide. In a system under demographic pressure, that efficiency matters.

The country already operates a research reactor and hosts nuclear medicine centres in Abuja and Ibadan, established with international support. In 2022, Nigeria joined the African Association of Radiopharmacy (AfrAR), signalling an intention to participate more actively in the regional development of radiopharmaceuticals and nuclear medicine services.

Universities and research institutions continue to train physicists and specialists, albeit at a pace constrained by funding and infrastructure. These steps show that nuclear medicine is not a distant aspiration, but a field where Nigeria is already present and can grow.

International cooperation plays a role here, but there are no silver bullet solutions in the field. Nuclear medicine ecosystems are built over decades, not delivered overnight. They require stable isotope supply chains, regulatory frameworks, trained personnel, and maintenance cultures. Global suppliers are part of this wider ecosystem, particularly in radioisotope production, but no external actor can substitute for domestic capacity building. In this context, the example of Russia’s Rosatom is noteworthy.

The corporation is among the world’s five largest suppliers of medical isotopes and focuses not only on stable supply chains for critical pharmaceuticals, but also on supporting the development of local infrastructure. What matters most is not who provides the technology, but whether the surrounding system is designed to sustain it.

Nigeria’s healthcare future will be defined less by headline investments and more by cumulative, unglamorous decisions: funding training programmes, retaining specialists, maintaining equipment, and integrating diagnostics into national care pathways. Nuclear medicine, when treated as infrastructure rather than spectacle, can help relieve pressure rather than add complexity.

For a country of Nigeria’s size, the cost of late diagnosis is no longer theoretical. It is measured in overcrowded hospitals, delayed treatments, and preventable loss. As the population grows, the healthcare system does not merely need more hands. It needs faster eyes.

Policymakers and professional bodies have practical levers at their disposal: protecting maintenance budgets, supporting specialist training, and embedding modern imaging and nuclear medicine into cancer and non-communicable disease plans. In modern medicine, seeing earlier often means saving later.