The Lagos State branch of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has asked the Federal Government, as a matter of urgency, to constitute the broader membership of the previously dissolved Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN), alongside boards in the federal health sector.
In a statement by its chairman, Saheed Kehinde, on Wednesday, the association said the call for the reconstitution of the MDCN is now pressing following the demise of 21-month-old Nkanu Nnamdi Esege, son of Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and the aftermath of the release of recommendations by a medical and dental practitioners’ investigational panel constituted by the council to investigate allegations of medical negligence which trailed the unfortunate death of the infant.
The investigation panel suspended practitioners from two hospitals involved in the matter: Euracare MultiSpecialist Hospital and Atlantis Pediatric Hospital, even as a coroner’s inquest into the death is underway.
According to Kehinde, the MDCN, when constituted, would have the authority to convene the Medical and Dental Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal, which would then be able to adequately fulfil its mandate by delivering justice to both sides of the issue, rather than an investigations panel which seemingly turned the personnel involved into an accused.
‘The NMA Lagos State believes that MDCN remains the primary regulatory body for Nigerians to seek justice on medical negligence. However, the recent recommendations of the Medical and Dental Practitioners Investigation Panel on the death of 21 months old, Late Nkanu Adichie-Esege, son of Mrs Chimamanda Adichie-Esege has brought out the urgent need for the Federal Government of Nigeria to immediately constitute the membership of the MDCN that will constitute the Medical and Dental Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal for justice not to be delayed on both sides’, the statement read.
Kehinde contested that the positioning of the investigations panel had been rather punitive than investigative, noting that the process employed by the panel violated principles of fair hearing.
‘The manner in which the report of the Medical and Dental Practitioners Investigation Panel on the death of Nkanu Adichie-Esege was reported by the media, including the social media outrage, is totally unacceptable and against the principle of fair hearing’, he said.
The inauguration of a broader council, he added, ‘will also prevent continuous and endless disciplinary actions meted out on medical and dental practitioners and the consequent mental stress, who have been waiting for the Medical and Dental Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal for the final decisions on the cases’.
President Bola Tinubu appointed Prof Afolabi Lesi as the new Board Chairperson of the MDCN in 2024, but Lesi had remained on the council alone since then.
‘In the current situation, the chairman of the council has been appointed by the FG for a long time, while the other members of the council are yet to be appointed – what is then the value of such an appointment?
‘The failure to appoint the members of the council, other members of the boards of the Federal Health Institutions and this incident have further exposed one of the causes of the self-imposed systemic failure in the Federal Ministry of Health. This trend is dangerous, unacceptable and disappointing’, he added.
