The House of Representatives has asked the Nigeria Medical and Dental Council (NMDC) to waive the conventional rule and allow 2,500 medical graduates to enroll for their National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme, “pending when permanent licences will be issued to them.”
The House said that all graduate doctors, who have fulfilled the requirements for the permanent licence, including payment of relevant fees, should be granted access into camps.
The decision of the House of Representatives followed a complaint lodged by a member, Mr. Oladele George that over 2,500 graduate doctors might miss participating in the 2015 Batch ‘B’ National Youth Service Corps due to delays created by the Nigerian Medical and Dental Council.
He noted noted that the graduates, who had completed their internship, had not been issued Permanent Licence by the Council, a prerequisite for participating in the mandatory one-year NYSC program.
The House noted that while the graduates were not responsible for the delay, the same NMDC had instructed the authorities of the NYSC not to admit any of them into camps without a permanent licence.
Oladele George told the House that the temporary licence held by the doctors did not grant them entry into NYSC camps, adding: “the issue of giving these young professionals permanent licence should not take more than one week.
“But, now it has taken months and yet no permanent licence for these graduates.
“Nigeria risks a vacuum of over 2,500 medical professionals if these doctors do not go for their service in batch ‘B’ for 2015,” he added.
The session, which was presided over by the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, insisted that the delay in the issuance of the licence could not be blamed on the doctors but on the NMDC.
The House then directed its Committee on Health Services to intervene and find out why the medical council was delaying the graduates after they had satisfied the requirements for the licence.
The resolution of the House received unanimous backing by lawmakers through a voice vote of a “yes.” [myad]
