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…Says Council can’t void court judgments, actions taken by it have no effect
By Enyeribe Ejiogu
The National Assembly is currently considering some Executive Bills for amendment of the establishment Acts of regulatory bodies of healthcare professionals. Since the first reading of the bills, proposed amendments in the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria Act (MDCN) have set off a firestorm of protests from other professionals within the healthcare delivery value chain.
Against this background, the leadership tussle which began to rock the Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria in 2020 deepened further on February 7, when the Acting Registrar of the Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria, MLSCN, conducted an election for new National Executive Officers for AMLSN.
However, the move was seen as an affront and deemed to be a contemptuous disregard of the subsisting judgements of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, NICN. Consequently, the AMLSN Board of Trustees and the substantive National President, Dr Uche Odionyenma jointly instituted a lawsuit against the Minister of State for Health and MLSCN, on February 24, 2026 at the NICN, to seek appropriate reliefs.
In this interview, Odionyenma speaks on these issues with insights that put them in bold relief and give clarity.
The National Assembly is currently considering some bills to amend the laws that guide the practice of healthcare professionals in Medicine, Pharmacy, Medical Laboratory Science, Radiography and others. As a healthcare professional what are your thoughts on the proposed amendments to the MLSCN Act?
My thoughts on the proposed Executive bills are that, first the doctors, particularly pathologists are prodding the government to indulge in a wild goose chase. Second, the crave by laboratory physicians to have medical laboratory scientists work under their supervision is mischievous. The push to amend the extant laws guiding the Medical Laboratory Science practice in Nigeria aimed at diminishing the professional autonomy of medical laboratory scientists if allowed to succeed will not only threaten our present relevance but cripple the entire health system given the pivotal role of medical laboratory services in healthcare delivery.
Advocates of legislative amendments may be well informed and motivated by system-wide considerations. Nonetheless, durable and effective regulatory reform must align with established principles of professional governance, jurisprudence, and institutional design. If these principles are not observed in the process, then such reforms become acts in futility, counterproductive and a destructive service to the Nigerian health sector.
Self-governance is not just an administrative feature of a profession; it is the defining structural attribute. In professional sociology, regulatory jurisprudence, and institutional governance theory, a true profession is distinguished by its authority to regulate itself in the public interest.
The proposed Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria Act (Amendment) Bill seeks to unduly protect the professional territory of medical doctors by creating exclusivity clauses while not only encroaching but dictating what happens in other professional territories in the health sector. This negates the autonomy of professions allied to medicine and erodes the teamwork spirit canvassed for the health sector. Professional independence and teamwork are the hallmarks of effective and efficient health systems globally.
In the case of OAUTHC and AMLSN in 2016, the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) made it clear in a judgement that Medical Laboratory Science has been given the status of a profession by virtue of section 29 of the Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria Act 11, 2003 and therefore enjoys equality with other professions including medicine. It is sheer mischief for pathologists who are basically medical doctors to nurse the nauseating idea of wanting to supervise medical laboratory scientists in their core area of competence which is medical laboratory science.
In principle, one profession cannot regulate another. Cross-professional regulatory control can be problematic. When one profession presides over another’s regulatory process, it creates a lot of problems which include but are not limited to conflict of interest, knowledge asymmetry, structural imbalance, ethical distortion, professional subordination, loss of professional autonomy, blurred accountability lines and weakened professional identity. These undermine the very essence and definition of a profession.
It is baffling how the medical and dental practitioners in concert with Nigeria Medical Association were able to hoodwink the Federal Executive Council into buying this retrogressive idea and accepting to accommodate it as Executive Bill for all health professionals. We passionately plead with the leadership and members of the National Assembly to help save the health sector by rejecting these obnoxious amendment proposals. We hope to be at the public hearing to further explain the negative implications and consequences of passing the bills as proposed. No profession is superior to another. We all cannot be medical doctors. No profession can work in isolation successfully as we complement one another in service to humanity.
A few days ago, a healthcare group, the Patriotic Medical Laboratory Scientists, characterised one particular proposed amendment of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria Act as a “brazen attempt at professional dictatorship that will turn the MDCN into a Super Regulator.” Is there really any justification for such an assertion?
Sure, there are. When MDCN is seeking amendments that make its representative a member and even the Chairman of the Governing Boards of other professions, while ensuring that no other profession gets appointed into its Governing Board as member then that is tantamount to professional dictatorship and abuse of privilege. I quite agree with the assertion made by the Patriotic Medical Laboratory Scientists. The urge to introduce modern day slavery in the health sector will be vehemently resisted by all the professions allied to medicine. In developed climes, you hardly see a medical doctor heading a hospital, heath institution or health ministry but in Nigeria such appointments are considered the exclusive preserve of medical doctors which informs why our health system is improperly managed. The insatiable appetite of doctors to head other professionals in their areas of competence, which almost always lead to disharmony in the health sector, remain the bane of quality healthcare delivery in Nigeria. In modern regulatory design, the most stable and effective model preserves professional autonomy while strengthening structured inter-professional collaboration.
Among non-medical doctor professionals in the healthcare value chain is there a perceptible sense of emergency that demands a proactive, coordinated response to what has been described PMLS as “a clear legislative overreach” in the proposed amendments to the MDCN Act, Pharmacy Act, the MLSCN Act and the other healthcare-related legislations? Are there energetic efforts to resist the negative amendments?
Yes, readily. Tremendous efforts are ongoing by the non-doctor professionals, as several unions of allied health professionals in collaboration with the umbrella body, JOHESU, to resist the negative amendments. Several press conferences, letters and engagements with high profile government and National Assembly officials are being deployed to nip this legislative overreach in the bud. The relative peace in the health sector cannot be truncated by the inordinate ambition of the MDCN and NMA. We solemnly believe that the National Assembly will bow to superior argument canvassed during public hearing on the matter.
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On February 7, the MLSCN adopted the Doctrine of Necessity and organised an election for the Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria, which has been bugged down by leadership tussle. Please share your thoughts on the election and all other issues relevant to it.
First, let me give a brief summary of the issue in the contest. Prof. Damen, Dr Casmir and I contested the office of National President, AMLSN. Both Prof. Damen and Dr Casmir knew they were not qualified by the dictates of our constitution but insisted on running. Prof. was declared winner and I challenged the victory in court. The court gave judgement in my favour on October 10, 2023, ordered Prof Damen to stop parading himself as National President and requested the Board of Trustees to swear me in. Prof. Damen defied the order of court, dissuaded the BoT from swearing me in with a lie that he had gotten a stay of execution and had appealed the judgement. Prof Damen went ahead to conduct an illegal election that produced Dr. Casmir as National President, in the face of a subsisting judgement of court, in November 2023. On June 13, 2024, the court heard the application of Prof. Damen for a stay of execution and gave a ruling in denial and insisted that its judgement of October 10, 2023, be complied with. On the strength of this, the AMLSN Board of Trustees invited me to Abuja and formally swore me in as National President at the AMLSN Secretariat, Abuja. The BoT issued a letter to me to take office as National President and another letter to Dr. Casmir to hand over and stop parading himself as President. Piqued by this development, Dr. Casmir drove the workers at AMLSN secretariat away and invited the police from zone 7 to seal the place. He filed a suit challenging his removal and the court took cognizance of my having been sworn in and ordered that the status quo be maintained pending the determination of the suit. Dr. Casmir disregarded the order of court, kept parading himself as National President, organised a parallel conference at Owerri, replaced the BoT fraudulently at the CAC and never allowed me to take office. We commenced contempt proceedings on Dr. Casmir. After several months of engagement, the police withdrew their men from our secretariat following intervention of the IGP. No sooner had the police left than armed thugs were engaged by Dr. Casmir to continue the sealing of the secretariat which lasted for over two years. He withdrew his suit from the National Industrial Court of Nigeria and filed the same at Abuja High court. It became obvious that the cabal, which organised the illegal election of Casmir, was using every means to sustain the crisis that has essentially crippled AMLSN. After all other avenues to gain legitimacy failed, the cabal worked with the Acting Registrar of the Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria to misadvise the Hon. Minister of State for Health to seemingly nullify the subsisting NICN judgement and subsequently held an election and returned Dr. Casmir became National President on February 7 in full contravention of the AMLSN constitution.
I consider the election that took place at the MLSCN Headquarters on February 7, 2026, where lawless and desperate individuals took laws into their hands and acted in a manner not in consonance with our constitution as a charade and affront to the rule of law.
The NICN judgements of October 10, 2020, and June 13, 2024, in my favor, because of which I was sworn in by the AMLSN Board of Trustees on June 25, 2024, are still subsisting and have not been vacated by any higher court. I therefore remain the authentic National President of AMLSN.
As I write there are about five pending court cases at various courts on AMLSN leadership tussle. The question is where did the Honourable Minister of State for Health and Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria derive their powers to act on AMLSN matters pending in various Courts?
For the avoidance of doubt, I wish to make the following declarations:
1. AMLSN is a non-governmental, non-religious, non-partisan and not-for-profit civic professional organization. It is neither a parastatal under the FMoH nor a department under the MLSCN.
2. That the setting up of a committee by the Honourable Minister of State for Health on the AMLSN leadership tussle is unknown to the AMLSN constitution.
3. That the dissolution of the AMLSN Excos by the Ministerial committee in concert with Past Presidents without the consent of the sitting AMLSN Board of Trustees is unknown to the AMLSN constitution.
4. That the constitution and inauguration of the electoral committee by the Ag. Registrar, MLSCN is unknown to AMLSN constitution
5. That the conduct of election of AMLSN executives by a committee appointed and headed by the Ag. Registrar, MLSCN is unknown to AMLSN constitution.
6. That the declaration of winners and issuance of certificate of return by the Ag. Registrar, MLSCN is unknown to the AMLSN constitution.
7. That the suspension of AMLSN constitution by the Ag Registrar in concert with the Ministerial committee is unknown to AMLSN constitution
Our Constitution is a written instrument embodying the basic principles, laws and rules of AMLSN that determine the powers and duties of AMLSN Executives/Organs and guarantees certain rights to members. Any act or action taken that is unknown to our constitution is unknown to law and to that extent is considered null, void and of no effect. So, what took place at the MLSCN Headquarters on February 7, 2026, was a sheer waste of time and energy.
Making rule of law count and bringing sanity back to our Association is a task that must be done. No individual, no matter how highly placed is above the rule of law. This informs why we have dragged the FMoH and MLSCN to court over the issue.
At the level of the Federal Ministry of Health and MLSCN, the February 7 election seems to be a done deal. Is that the feeling among AMLSN members too? Or does it appear that there is an uneasy calm before the storm? If you think so, what reasons give you that impression?
I do not believe the FMoH and MLSCN think the February 7 election is a done deal, given the fresh suit against them as their action could be perceived as contempt of court or a rescue mission for Dr. Casmir who’s facing contempt charges in court.The minister’s good intention of brokering peace was hijacked by the Ag Registrar who acted in concert with members of the cabal to derail the reconciliation process. AMLSN members who believe in the rule of law, particularly the elders, are not happy with the development as they see what happened on February 7 as a mere show of force and living above the law. The apathy is felt and most people believe the exercise of February 7 was a mere waste of time in the eyes of the law notwithstanding the procurement of congratulatory messages by Dr. Casmir.
Oh yes, what we have now is uneasy calm before the raging storm. I think so because it is foolish to reward bad behaviour. Returning Dr. Casmir as National President after he flagrantly disobeyed court orders, drove workers away, sealed the AMLSN secretariat for over two years, unleashed tugs at BoT members, fraudulently changed BoT at the CAC, and never met constitutional requirement to contest since 2020 till date tantamount to rewarding bad behaviour and setting negative precedence. What brought this crisis in the first place was the undermining of our constitution. It’s sheer stupidity to seek to undermine the constitution again in resolving the crisis.
