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Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
Medical consultants, under the aegis of Medical and Dental Consultants’ Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, yesterday began an indefinite strike.
The strike was to register their objection to a recent circular issued by the National University Commission (NUC), which prescribed acquisition of PhD for clinical lecturers in Nigerian universities.
The circular, dated December 24, 2019, which was addressed to vice chancellors of all universities and the registrar of National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria, said PhD programmes would be introduced in the clinical sciences in the university system for interested practitioners to upgrade themselves with the postgraduate programme, especially for career progression in academia.
MDCAN Chairman, Dare Olulana, during a press conference at UCH yesterday, said: “It is ancient logic that efficiency is compromised whenever the cart is placed before the horse. This is what the obnoxious NUC circular on PhD for clinical lecturers in Nigeria universities that was released represents.
“The originators of medicine and medical practice have always trained their doctors relying on the expertise of fellowship earners because they have gone through carefully developed residency programme that carry both academic and professional contents unmatchable by any other.
“This justifiably provoked sufficient upset for us to call an emergency meeting of our association in Abuja on January 4. MDCAN met again two weeks later in Port Harcourt and following extensive deliberations, a 21-day ultimatum was issued to NUC to withdraw the circular but sadly, our demand was ignored.
“Consequently, we are left with no further choice than to withdraw our services from the universities with immediate effect. We resolve to comply fully with the directive of our national body to embark on indefinite withdrawal of our services from the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan.
“We expected NUC to go to Canada, USA, Britain and France to copy new ways of doing things but sadly, the NUC headed to Sudan, Bangladesh and India.”
