The Nigerian Medical Association, has commended the Nigerian senate for considering five new bills aimed at improving the health sector in the country.
The President of the Nigerian Medical Association, Prof. Innocent Ujah, gave the commendation at a press briefing in Abuja.
He said that the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (Repeal and Re-enactment) Bill SB. 480 and four other Bills. SB. 480 seek to repeal and re-enact the Medical and Dental Practitioners Act Cap M8. LFN 2004, which was enacted by Decree 23 of 1988 and amended by Decree 78 of 1992.
According to Prof Ujah the effort of the Senate is timely, appropriate, and necessary to bring the regulation of Medicine and Dentistry in Nigeria up to date with respect to advancements and developments in healthcare nationally and internationally and the Nigerian Medical Association welcomes the Bill.
“Nigerian Medical Association is happy that the Bill seeks to reinforce the perpetuity of the Medical and Dental Council by making it immune to frequent and unnecessary disruptions through dissolution each time there is a change of government. The Bill also makes it easier for the Medical and Dental Practitioners’ Disciplinary Tribunal to try cases of professional misconduct against doctors in a timelier manner. It also provide more realistic sanctions against doctors who are found guilty by the Disciplinary Tribunal. The current state of affairs is such that cases linger for years due to the frequent dissolution of the Council and the Disciplinary Tribunal. And when the Tribunal finds a doctor guilty of professional misconduct, the extant law does not permit it to suspend such a doctor for more than six months. The next most severe sanction is erasure from the Medical Register,” Prof Ujah said.
He however said that it has come to the knowledge of the Nigerian Medical Association that a group of misguided individuals, acting under an amorphous unregistered body (‘JOHESU’) unknown to law, are hell bent on blackmailing the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and particularly the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health over matters they could not logically advance during the transparently managed Senate Public hearing on 5 health related Bills, held on Monday, February 1, 2021.
“We believe that these feelings are misguided and emanate from a misunderstanding and ignorance of the purpose of the Bill among these professionals, and mischief by a few of their leaders who exploit the misunderstanding and ignorance among their members. A dispassionate and ponderous reading of the provisions of the Bill would make it clear to all reasonable persons who only seek to advance themselves without causing unnecessary acrimony and rancour in the health sector and health system, that the Bill is well intended and in tandem with contemporary Medical and Dental practice,” Prof Ujah said.
The association also commended the chairman Senate Committee on Health, Senator Ibrahim Oloriegbe and members of his committee for performing excellently well, as they exhibited maximum degree of decency, decorum and exemplary leadership, even in the face of unruly behaviour of some JOHESU members in the hall during the public hearing on the bills.
He also appealed to the general public and the National Assembly to ignore the voice of the paranoiac JOHESU who have sustained their attacks on Nigerian Doctors purely out of jealousy and envy.
