The Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria [MDCAN], University College Hospital (UCH) chapter, on Tuesday, called on the Federal Government to sack the chairman of the Governing Council of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Amb. Greg Mbadiwe, for making Ph.D. a criterion for the post of the university’s Vice Chancellor, thereby excluding medical lecturers from the race.
MDCAN declared a seven-day strike beginning Monday, including implementing a consolidated medical salary scale for all doctors. The UCH chapter joined that industrial action, which has affected treatment, training, and other activities at the premier teaching hospital.
Speaking at a press conference at the MDCAN Lounge of the institution, the UCH Chairman of MDCAN, Dr Oluseyi Akande, said the strike became imperative over the undue treatment being meted out to medical lecturers at UNIZIK.
Akande stated that MDCAN would not allow the high-quality, time-tested, and hard-earned medical fellowship by its members to be subverted, undermined, or disparaged by any university council in Nigeria.
The MDCAN boss, flanked by Dr. Abieyuwa Fagbohun, Dr Yewande Babalola, Dr Oludare Olulana, and Dr Emmanuel Jite, said the compliance to the strike was total, except in emergency cases to save lives.
He said, “The strike is to press home three demands that the Federal Government has neglected despite previous engagements by our association.
“The process is strange to the traditions and extant rules and regulations of any university in Nigeria. Right from the advert, the process excluded an important and indispensable group of the university, the medically qualified professors.
“The advertisement and the process strangely made a PhD degree a prerequisite for becoming a vice chancellor in that university. It is a known fact that acquisition of a PhD is not in the tract of medical academics who are holders of Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery, and Medical Fellowship, which is an academic and professional qualification required for appointment and progression in the university.
“Please note that medical fellowships are awarded by relevant postgraduate medical colleges established by government decrees. This is the global standard, and it is not new in Nigeria.
“Nigerian universities have been administered and are still being administered by many medically qualified fellows who have done excellently well, and history is there to confirm.
Examples at the University of Ibadan include Prof. Adeoye Lambo, Prof. H.O. Thomas, Prof. ABOO Oyediran, Professor Ayodele Falase, and Professor Isaac Adewole.
“The position of a council chairman and pro-chancellor of a university is so revered that it is to be given to people who will be fair in the affairs of the university. //MDCAN will not allow our high-quality, time-tested, hard-earned medical fellowship to be subverted, undermined, or disparaged by any university council in Nigeria.
“We demand an immediate sack of Amb. Greg Mbadiwe as the council chairman of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka.
“We are requesting the universal applicability of the consolidated medical salary scale approved by the government for all doctors, irrespective of where they work, especially in the universities where medical doctors are no longer motivated to work due to very poor conditions of service.
“Many colleges of medicine, including the College of Medicine at the University of Ibadan, are finding it difficult to attract qualified medical academics due to the non-implementation of CONMESS for the clinical lecturers. This is dangerous for the future of medical education in the country.”
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