Kidnapping: Nigerian doctors now endangered species — NMA

The Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) says Nigerian doctors, dentists, and their relatives are now endangered species in the hands of kidnappers, while the government and citizens are helpless.

The President, NMA Dr Uche Rowland Ojinmah, made this lamentation in Umuahia on Monday on the occasion of its 2023 Physicians Week, stating, “The menace of the kidnapping of doctors, dentists, and their relatives has become a daily event to the point of desensitisation.

“The government and our fellow citizens are no longer moved by our plight because all we see is lip service. For us, the saying “In the midst of life, we are in death” is an existential reality. In fact, in the midst of work, we are dead. We and our relatives have lost our fundamental right to freedom of movement, and our government and society are just moving on.

“Let me also remind the government of Cross River State that we are still awaiting the return of Prof. Ekanem Philip Ephraim. To the Abia state government, we are still waiting for information on the whereabouts of Prof. U.U. Iweha. We will not stop asking. Kidnapping and insecurity, I must tell you, are now major causes of medical brain drain, and we call for action, not rhetoric”.

On other issues bothering the body, the NMA President said, “The routine incapacitation of the Medical and Dental Council (MDCN) regulatory function is no longer acceptable. The Act setting up the MDCN stated that the Council shall be in perpetuity, but the practice whereby the government allows the Council of MDCN to elapse without replacement, especially for long durations, compromises the ability to regulate medical practice properly as the Investigative Panel and Medical and Dental Practitioners’ Tribunal, which are organs of the Council, cannot be constituted.

“The plan to stop funding the Medical and Dental Council (MDCN) from next year is ill-conceived and can only lead to disaster. The job of MDCN, which is to regulate medical and dental practice, is so important that funding from the government is appropriate. If we stop funding the MDCN, I wonder who we want to do it for.

“NMA wishes to denounce the persistent attempt by certain individuals and bodies to interfere with the regulation of medical education and standards, especially as it relates to the board licencing of foreign-trained medical graduates”.

The body also called on the federal government “to sustain the deployment of all plans to prevent or abate flooding this year. The flood disaster, added to the current economic hardship, may break the spirit of many Nigerians. Let our politicians and statesmen, in all they do, remember never to compromise the peace and progress of this great nation. Many are the afflictions of Nigeria, but I know that our Lord shall deliver her from them all”.

The body also used the opportunity to warn the Abia State Government of its plan to sack doctors at the director level, stating, “If the Abia State Government continues, we will respond appropriately”.

The NMA President related his awareness that ABSG plans to sack Abia doctors on the director’s level before the due date, disclosing that “Federal Government policy on directors does not affect clinical doctors. I don’t know why ABSG wants to relieve the doctors of their jobs, doctors that the state doesn’t have”.

According to him, the Federal Government policy affects doctors in administrative caders, stating, “Even if they have clinical doctors in administrative caders, return them to clinical services”.

He used the opportunity to canvass for more medical universities “so that carrying capacity will be enlarged,” explaining that the country is producing world-class medical doctors but is inhibited by admission capacity in the universities.

The theme of this year’s Physicians’ Week, “This Is Our Chance: To Get It Right In The Health Sector”, Dr Ojinmah was chosen to provide positive direction to the new administration as it relates to fixing our healthcare sector, adding, “As stated in the Physicians’ Pledge, we shall do all within our power to “defend the honour and noble traditions of medicine”.

“I hereby call on all Nigerian doctors to rise above religious, tribal, and political encumbrances to work only for a better Nigeria”, he advised.

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