By Daniel Oluwatobiloba Popoola
The House of Representatives Committee on Health Institutions has faulted Chief Medical Directors (CMDs) of federal university teaching hospitals and federal medical centres, declaring that traditional medicine practitioners appear to be conducting more research than the country’s teaching hospitals.
The criticism came on Tuesday,10 February, 2026 during the defence of the 2026 budget estimates, when the CMDs appeared before the panel chaired by Patrick Umoh.
The lawmakers accused the hospital heads of allocating less than one percent of their annual budgets to research, a development the committee said undermines their statutory role as centres of research.
Umoh consequently berated the CMDs for failing to prioritise research funding, arguing that their repeated emphasis on infrastructure over innovation has weakened the health system.
“Teaching hospitals are supposed to be centres of research. You have never raised the issue of lack of funding for research, but you talk more about infrastructure. That makes you part of the problem,” he said.
Furthermore, he linked the weak research culture to Nigeria’s experience during the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that the crisis exposed glaring preparedness gaps.
“The COVID-19 pandemic caught us all unprepared. Let me mock you a little by saying that traditional medicine practitioners appeared to be doing better,” Umoh added.
He also expressed frustration over findings from his oversight visits, stating that none of the institutions had demonstrated the existence of a dedicated research facility.
“You are not doing research. I have gone on several oversight visits, but no hospital has taken me to a facility, and this is our research centre,” he said.
However, speaking on behalf of his colleagues, Pokop Bupwatda, Chief Medical Director of the Jos University Teaching Hospital, acknowledged the funding constraints confronting tertiary institutions.
He explained that only about one percent of teaching hospitals’ budgets is allocated to research and that the provision is often stripped out during the budgeting process.
He therefore called for increased funding for the health sector to enable the recruitment of qualified personnel and improve staff welfare, stressing that improved funding would help curb the migration of doctors.
In addition, Bupwatda disclosed that limited releases have compounded existing challenges, revealing that only about 30 percent of the 2025 allocation to federal tertiary health institutions has been disbursed.
