Owing to the alleged frustration foreign trained medical students who completed their studies and return to Nigeria to practice experienced in the last five years, a Rights Activist from Katsina, Bashir Adamu Daura has called on members of the National Assembly to repeal the Act establishing the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) with immediate effect.
A Rights activist from Katsina, Bashir Adamu Daura has called for a repeal of the Act establishing MDCN with immediate effect, owing to the alleged frustration foreign trained medical students who completed their studies and return to Nigeria to practice have been experiencing in the last five years.
Bashir laments that while some sections of the country are making efforts to bridge the wide gap between their health needs and available human resources, they have been hard hit by the “massive failure” in the so called “assessment examination” being conducted by MDCN.
Narrating the ordeal in a statement, Bashir said: “It is an umbrage generating issue that an examination slated to confirm that a candidate has undergone a training of many years to graduate as a Doctor has been turned into sessions of traumatic affliction by the institution (MDCN) saddled with the responsibility typical of most things Nigerian.
According to Bashir, “it is disheartening to learn that the fees for sitting for the examination have been hiked by over 80% in the last couple of years and the centralisation of conducting the examination has no regard for logistics and security burden/risk on the participants.
Bashir further stated that “it is axiomatic to state that the recent untoward developments in the conduct of assessment examination are undoubtedly hampering the availability of medical doctors in States using their meagre resources to send their young people outside our shores for medical training and qualification.”
He further said that “Unfortunately and typical of our political leadership in the north, nobody seems to be paying attention to the deliberate efforts to frustrate that noble gesture of some states and parents sacrificing fortune to train their wards. In this vein, therefore and in the interest of fairness, promoting transparency, erasing intervention of sentiment and other considerations that are inimical to the unique steps being taken by some states to produce enough manpower in the Medical Fields and in order to create a balanced platform devoid of inveterated prejudice.
Bashir also called on members of the National Assembly from the affected states to remember that they were elected to serve, protect and advance the interests of their constituents and they should take a leading role in this matter.
Bashir said:
“Repealing of MDCN Act should be the first assignment of the 10th Assembly and in its place the following recommendations are proffered:
“Zonal ‘Medical and Dental Agencies” be created in each of the 6 geopolitical zones of the federation to among other things conduct assessment examination of foreign trained doctors from each particular zone. It should have representation from: all hospital services management boards of the states in the zone and the officers to serve should not be below the rank of Assistant Director;
Secondly, he suggest that there should be representatives from the two oldest Teaching Hospitals situated in the Zone as well as a representative of Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) in the zone.
Bashir also suggested that representative from Federal Ministry of Health on observer status should be included as well as any other relevant individual/group or corporate body from the zone.
For administrative purposes, the Katsina Right Activist suggest that the secretariat of the proposed Agency should rotate within the affected states after every two years.
In terms of funding, Bashir suggest that the Agency should be funded from the proceeds of fees paid by the participants. He also recommended that the current Council be compelled to produce detailed results of the last examination conducted at Ibadan on 12th and 13th of July, 2023 and the results be made public with participants’ performance in all the subjects they sat. He noted that a court case is being instituted to that regard.
He urged representatives of the affected states in the National Assembly “to pursue with the needed urgency and the Council be placed on suspension until satisfactory outcome is received on the outcome of last assessment examination, noting that “our states are being deliberately denied progress in producing medical doctors arising from plans by some office holders who are bent on converting every opportunity to serve into an opportunity to wreck.”