THE “JAPA” SYNDROME AND ITS TOLL ON THE HEALTH SECTOR: A THEMATIC ANALYSIS OF THE DAILY TRUST AND VANGUARD NEWSPAPERS’ REPORTAGE OF THE MIGRATION OF HEALTH WORKERS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The study focuses on the newspaper reportage of the migration of medical health practitioners and the toll it has on Nigeria’s health sector from January 2022 to April 2024. Health workers migration is a huge Labour loss for the nation and has contributed to the decline of the health system. The study aimed to examine the nature of coverage of health workers migration stories in the Daily Trust and Vanguard newspapers. Agenda setting theory served as the theoretical framework and thematic analysis served as the methodology. Five variables were chosen as the units of analysis. They are- Positive Government Response (PGR), Negative Government Response (NGR) Neutral (N), Labour Loss (LL) and Labour Gain (LG).The study discovered that Vanguard newspaper has more stories on health workers migration (24) than Daily Trust newspaper (12). Vanguard newspaper also has harsher tones in its coverage than Daily Trust. It was recommended that the health gap created by health workers migration portends danger to the health sector in Nigeria and the cry by health workers should be attended to, to discourage their migration