The House of Representatives has mandated its Committee on Health Institutions to immediately commence investigation of discrimination in the recruitment of resident doctors by the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, in Calabar, Cross River State.
The House also called for immediate suspension of the Chief Medical Director of the Medical Health Institutions, Professor Ikpeme Asanye Ikpeme by the Federal Ministry of Health, to ensure he does not interfere with the investigation to be conducted by the the ministry.
The resolution of the House followed the adoption of a motion of urgent public importance, moved by Mr Iduma Igariwey.
Speaking on the substance of the motion, Mr. Igariwey referenced media reports detailing how Professor Ikpeme allegedly rejected 17 newly graduated medical doctors posted to the institution by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria for one year mandatory housemanship.
According to him, 17 out of the rejected names are Nigerians of Igbo extraction, saying that despite entreaties from the National Association of Resident Doctors of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital and the Nigerian Medical Association, Cross River Branch, “Professor Ikpeme has stood his ground to reject the list on account of the high number of Igbo applicants therein.”
“The House is alarmed that by rejecting a bona fide list of medical doctors sent to him by the regulatory body, on ground of tribe/region, Professor Ikpeme is in dangerous violation of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that seeks to protect citizens from discrimination on account of tribe and tongue.
“The House is concerned that Professor Ikpeme’s conduct is further compounding the challenges confronting our health care system, and the efforts of the current administration, being that Nigeria’s fragile health care system is facing a critical manpower deficit, as the number of licensed doctors has dropped to about 40,000, far below the estimated 300,000 needed to adequately serve Nigeria’s health care needs.
“We frown at the conduct of this highly placed federal officer that encourages brain drain in the health sector, and more importantly, further fractures the delicate ethnic fault lines of our union, leading to divisiveness, insecurity and instability.” The motion said.
At the session presided over by the Speaker, Dr Tajudeen Abbas, lawmakers voted in support of the motion as the House called for the immediate suspension of the CMD, “to ensure he does not interfere with the investigation to be conducted by the Committee on Health Institutions.”
The Committee has four weeks to turn in its report to the House for further legislative action.