Some Nigerians have taken to social media to criticise the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN) for refusing to verify the licences of nurses who wish to travel abroad.
This intensified on Monday after a UK-based Nigerian doctor, Olufunmilayo Ogunsanya, popularly known as OurFavOnlineDoctor, made a lengthy post on platform X accusing the NMCN of frustrating the plans of Nigerian nurses to practice abroad.
Mr Ogunsanya's posts have sparked reactions among Nigerians, especially health workers, who corroborated the posts with stories of frustrations and deliberate delays by the nursing council in X-tagging Nigerian government usernames.
“Canada has confirmed it, Saudi Arabia has confirmed it, Texas and the United States have confirmed it as well. Today it is nurses who are being held hostage, tomorrow it could be doctors, dentists, pharmacists, dieticians, opticians, optometrists, engineers or physiotherapists,” he said.
User X also added screenshots of an official response from the Texas Board of Nursing in the US to an applicant stating that NMCN had halted verifications indefinitely.
The board in the notice said it has suspended the application process for all Nigerian applicants whose Nigerian NMC license verification is missing or expired until further notice.
“The Nigerian NMC has notified us that it has stopped sending verifications for an indefinite period of time. The Nursing Board requires Nigerian applicants to have on file a current and valid license verification from the Nigerian NMC in order to move forward with their license application,” the notice reads.
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“There is no exemption to Nigerian verification, nor is there any alternative to having verification sent to us. The Board looks forward to informing all applicants when this situation changes.”
In addition, another notification from the College of Registered Nurses of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, told an applicant that “you are unable to log in to your account to verify your license. We understand that NMC Nigeria is not issuing verifications at this time.”
“We need a registration verification to assess your application, so we will hold your application until this process resumes and you can obtain your verification from NMC Nigeria,” he said.
Reactions
NMCN license verification is a mandatory requirement for any Nigerian trained nurse who wants to relocate abroad.
Mr Ogunsanya noted that the NMCN's disapproval means that “any licensed nurse in Nigeria is now unable to move abroad for work. They cannot therefore move from Nigeria to the UK, the US, Saudi Arabia or anywhere else.
“Any licensed nurse who has trained in Nigeria but is already abroad cannot leave where they are and go somewhere else. So they cannot move from the UK to the US, Canada or anywhere else. They are stuck where they are.”
Reacting to the development, user X, identified as Timothy, said: “I have a younger sister who is going through this problem. To be frank, I wish she was a hairdresser instead of a nurse in Nigeria.”
I want to draw attention to a terrible injustice being committed against Nigerian nurses.
Many of them don't have the voice, reach or platform to have their pain heard or seen, so I'm happy to do that for them.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMcN)… pic.twitter.com/KgSbcyEM2U
— #OurFavOnlineDoc 🩺 🇬🇧 (@OurFavOnlineDoc) August 18, 2024
Another user, identified as Benedict, said: “If they are offered a conducive work environment that guarantees good pay and respect for medical professionals, they said NO. If they are allowed to seek an environment where their skills are valued, they said NO. This country drives me crazy. May the wrath of God fall on all those behind this.”
Meanwhile, another user, Gress, said: “The decision by the NMCN is in poor taste. Aside from the immediate negative impact it is having, it would also force many potential students seeking a nursing degree to start avoiding Nigerian universities, which is not good for the education system.”
Another user, Anthonia, said: “Does NMCN know that their nurses cannot continue their education abroad without this verification? Nurses cannot pursue graduate studies (masters or PhD) in the US without verification because most universities require them to be registered nurses in their country.”
NMCN speaks
Speaking to Newslodgeon Monday morning, NMCN Secretary General/Registrar Faruk Abubakar acknowledged that there were issues with the verification process and also blamed the applicant nurses for not following due process.
He said the council was working to resolve the issues within days, especially with the newly approved health personnel migration policy now in effect.
“The president approved the first immigration policy and published it. I think very soon, in a couple of days, all the verification issues will be resolved,” Abubakar told PREMIUM TIMES.
Mr Abubakar accused some nurses of not following due process and board guidelines.
“We are a responsible institution, we have our own rules. I see people making up lies and then publishing them to mislead people. You cannot travel without following due process and wanting the council to respond to your request when you are out of the country,” he said.
He added: “We have to ensure checks and balances in the institutions. There are many illegal activities, such as cloning licences. We have to address them to protect the integrity of Nigeria.
“I give you my word, very soon all this will be resolved.”
The National Policy on Health Personnel Migration was approved last week by President Bola Tinubu as a strategy to manage the migration of Nigerian health professionals.
Mr Abubakar confirmed that by February, 42,000 nurses had left the country in three years.