The House of Representatives has called on the Medical and Dentistry Council of Nigeria to allow the Nigerian students who were evacuated from Ukraine over the war between the Eastern European country and Russia to complete their studies in Nigerian universities.
The House particularly called on the Council to “allow students in the 6th and Final Year of their programmes, who have completed their final exams, to register for the MDCN in Nigeria and allow them to prove themselves.”
The House also urged the MDCN to “allow students in the 5th Year of their medical programmes in Ukraine to be absorbed into medical schools in Nigerian universities to complete their 6th Year.”
The House also called on the Federal Government, through relevant ministries, departments and agencies, to discuss with Ukrainian authorities how to facilitate the release of the transcripts of years of school completed by Nigerian students willing to transfer to medical schools in Nigeria or other nations.
The lawmakers also mandated the House Committees on Tertiary Education, Health Institutions, and Foreign Affairs to engage with the leadership of the MDCN, Concerned Ukrainian Students’ Parents Forum Nigeria and other relevant MDAs to find lasting solutions to the challenge.
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These resolutions were sequel to the unanimous adoption of a motion of urgent public importance moved by a member of the House, Tajudeen Yusuf, titled ‘Need To Safeguard the Academic Pursuit of Nigerian Youths in Ukrainian Medical Universities.’
Yusuf, who is Kabba-Bunu/Ijumu Federal Constituency in Kogi State, noted “with serious concerns and outright consternation” the plight of Nigerian youths studying medicine, dentistry and similar courses in different universities in Ukraine, “whose academic pursuits have been thrown into uncertainty, confusion and threats by the Medical and Dentistry Council of Nigeria.”
The lawmaker noted that MDCN, a body that regulates the medical profession in Nigeria, had through a statement on its Twitter handle declared that medical and dentistry degree certificates obtained from Ukrainian universities from 2020 by Nigerians would not be honoured by the Council until when normal academic activities resume.
According to him, the MDCN in the same statement resolved not to recognise any online medical training, no matter how short, received by Nigerian youths in Ukraine and any part of the world.
He said some of the students have completed or are still on the mandatory clinic attachment which commenced in April 2022.
Yusuf stated that contrary to the impression the MDCN is creating, the vast majority of the students in Years 3 to 6 only did online study/training for a few months in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic which spread all over the world, and in the past three months as a result of the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia.
The lawmaker also noted that there are thousands of Nigerian youths studying Medicine and related courses in Ukrainian universities who, by the MDCN regulation, would not only be affected but their academic pursuits might also be thrown into “serious jeopardy.”
He stressed that the bulk of the medical students, having spent between four to six years in the pursuit of their respective academic and professional ambitions, going by the MDCN regulation,” are at serious risk of not only losing these years of rigorous training but huge financial losses to their parents.”
Yusuf said, “The House is disturbed that by this policy, the MDCN intends to truncate the academic dreams and professional ambitions of thousands of Nigerian Medical Students in Ukraine as a result of ongoing development that is not caused by them.
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