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Nigeria’s Health System Risk Total Shutdown

“Eligible applicants must have a minimum of two years post qualification experience from the date of issuance of the permanent practicing licence. Any application with a provisional licence shall be rejected outright.

“The council shall request a letter of good standing from the chief executive officer of the applicant’s place(s) of work and the last nursing training institution attended and responses on these shall be addressed directly to the Registrar/CEO, NMCN. Please note that the council shall not accept such letter(s) through the applicant.”

That is an excerpt of the new verification guideline instruction, signed by Registrar of The Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN), Dr. Faruk Abubakar. This is on the verge of having Nigerian health system is at the risk of a total shutdown as Nigerian Nurses protest the new verification process.

Before February 2024, Nurses and professional Midwives have been on complaints about not being able to verify their certificates which is unusual of the professional body of the medical practitioners.

On 7th February 2024, the NMCN National headquarters released a circular containing the exploitative guidelines to verification which is widely presumed to placing a halt on the health system brain drain.

The demonstration took place at the NMCN’s office in Abuja, marked by chants and placard displays voicing their grievances. The nurses expressed concerns about the perceived constraints on their career advancement opportunities, emphasizing demands for improved welfare, salary scales, staffing levels, and other rights. They opposed what they viewed as impediments to their professional autonomy and urged the council to address the underlying issues affecting nurses’ well-being.

This guideline has so-far been declined by several Nurses associations from Ondo, Kaduna, Edo etc. And also, associations of Nigerian Nurses abroad (U.K, US, Australia) also joined.

The guideline is also being protested by a peaceful demonstration in Lagos.

Medical doctors also joined voices with their colleagues who are to uphold the Hippocratic oath and have also promised to join officially in the protest which may subsequently lead in the downing of tools throughout the health sector.

This is to call on the Nigerian government to consider the risks and take action.

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