. . .Restates rejection of last assessment examination by many states, heads to court
Considering the Yeoman’s efforts of some sections of the country to bridge the wide gap between their health needs and human resources availability, the National Assembly had been advised to unbundle Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, MDCN, in order to reduce the frustration of the states and parents that are sacrificing fortunes to train their medical students abroad.
Rights activist, Bashir Adamu Daura, who is in the lead in propagating MDCN Act repeal agenda, described the said recent untoward developments in the conduct of assessment examination for the foreign trained medical doctors as totally unacceptable in the face of the need to create a balanced platform devoid of prejudice.
He said the last five years had been quite horrific for the foreign trained doctors who returned to Nigeria to practice, particularly in some sections of the country, that have been hard hit by the “massive failure in the so called assessment examination being conducted by MDCN.”
Daura therefore called on the National Assembly to repeal as soon as possible the Act setting up or establishing the council and create six zonal agencies in the federation to among others conduct the assessment examination.
This, he said, remains the best way out in the interest of fairness, transparency and erasing the intervention of sentiment and other considerations that are inimical to the unique steps being taken by some states to provide enough manpower in medical fields.
His words: “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 (MDCN) saddled with the responsibility typical of most things Nigerian.
“It is disheartening to learn that the fees for sitting 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.
“It is axiomatic to state that the recent untoward developments in the conduct of that 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 however lamented that many political leadership in the north seemed to be paying no attention to the deliberate efforts to frustrate their states, stressing that repealing of MDCN ACT should be the first task of the 10th National Assembly.
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