A bill before the National Assembly, seeking to control the migration of doctors for greener pastures abroad was blocked by the Federal Government

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The Federal Government, Monday, kicked against the bill before the National Assembly seeking to control the migration of doctors for greener pastures abroad.
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, expressed the objection while fielding questions from State House correspondents at the end of the extraordinary Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Council Chamber, Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Responding to a question on the threat of doctors to go on a five-day warning strike over what they perceived as the attempt to compulsorily keep medical and dental graduates in the country for five years before granting the licence to practice, Ngige said the bill will go against extant Labour laws.

The sponsor of the bill in the House of Representatives, Ganiyu Johnson, representing Lagos State, had explained that the move was to check the mass exodus of medical professionals from the country.

The legislation is titied: “A Bill for an Act to amend the Medical and Dental Practitioners Act, Cap. M379, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 to mandate any Nigeria-trained medical or dental practitioner to practise in Nigeria for a minimum of five years before being granted a full licence by the council to make quality health services available to Nigeria; and for related matters.”

Following the introduction of the bill, the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) had vowed that it will resist any attempt to enslave Nigerian medical doctors under any guise.

The association has announced a plan to embark on a five-day warning strike with the immediate withdrawal of the bill as one of its demands.

Other demands are an immediate increment in the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure to the tune of 200 per cent of the current gross salaries of doctors, the immediate implementation of CONMESS, domestication of the Medical Residency Training Act, and review of hazard allowance by all the state governments as well as private tertiary health institutions where any form of residency training is done; among others.

But Senator Ngige said, “Nobody can say they (doctors) will not get a practising licence till after five years. It will run counter to the laws of the land that have established the progression in the practice of medicine.