NIMR Director-General John Oladapo Obafunwa says doctors account for less than 2% of research staff at Nigeria’s premier medical research institute
By Bunmi Yekini
Nigeria needs to strengthen the pipeline of doctors who combine clinical practice with biomedical research to improve the relevance of medical research to patients and national health priorities, the Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), John Oladapo Obafunwa, said on Thursday.
Obafunwa said only seven of NIMR’s 59 research fellows were medically qualified, while five were Fellows of the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria, leaving physician-scientists to account for well under 2% of the institute’s 278 staff.
He made the remarks while delivering the 44th Annual Convocation Lecture of the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria, titled “The Intersection of Medicine, Law, Research, and Ethics in Nigeria: Challenges, Opportunities, and Way Forward.”
A physician-scientist, he said, bridges clinical practice and biomedical research by ensuring that research questions are grounded in patients’ needs and helping translate discoveries into medical care.
“When clinical insight does not inform study design, endpoints, and interpretation, the relevance of research to Nigerian patient populations diminishes,” Obafunwa said in the lecture.
He identified heavy clinical workloads, inadequate research funding, career structures that do not sufficiently reward dual clinical and research roles, regulatory delays, brain drain and less competitive conditions of service at research institutions as obstacles to developing physician-scientists.
Obafunwa, an anatomic and forensic pathologist and medical educator, also called for the introduction of MBBS-PhD programmes in Nigerian medical schools to begin developing physician-scientists earlier in their careers.
Such graduates could subsequently enter residency training in their chosen clinical specialties, he said.
He proposed a formal physician-scientist track within NIMR and postgraduate medical training, with protected research time, structured mentorship, joint appointments between clinical institutions and research centres, and clearer promotion pathways.
The NPMCN, he said, should integrate clinical training, translational research and legal and ethical governance into postgraduate education.
The recommendations come as Nigeria’s health system faces the challenge of generating locally relevant evidence while maintaining clinical services, training specialists and ensuring ethical research practices.
Obafunwa also stressed the importance of legal and ethical literacy among doctors, saying medical professionals needed stronger training in informed consent, patient confidentiality, documentation, duty of care and clinical forensic procedures.
He said proper documentation was particularly important in reducing medical negligence disputes and protecting both patients and health professionals.
Doctors should maintain objective and timely records, seek second opinions where necessary, report errors promptly and participate in investigations into their causes, he said.
They should not alter records to conceal mistakes or dismiss patient concerns, Obafunwa added.
He also called for stronger governance of medical research, including standardised consent procedures, data-sharing agreements, data protection, conflict-of-interest safeguards and clear protocols for reporting research-related incidents.
The lecture also highlighted the overlap between medicine, law and ethics in forensic practice, including autopsies, death certification and the use of human tissue in research.
Obafunwa urged the college and other institutions to establish multidisciplinary structures involving clinicians, researchers, lawyers and ethicists to oversee research and address legal and ethical concerns.
Among his proposed measures were a cross-disciplinary ethics, law and postgraduate research task force, pilot physician-scientist programmes, stronger research infrastructure including biobanks and data platforms, and partnerships to expand funding and mentorship.
He said the reforms would require collaboration among medical institutions, universities, research agencies, legal professionals, ethicists, funders and policymakers.
As NIMR director-general, Obafunwa said he was committed to supporting the proposed reforms and urged stakeholders to participate in building a research system capable of producing ethically sound innovations with greater relevance to Nigerian patients.