The Registrar of the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN), Faruk Abubakar, on Monday, said the council’s new guidelines are not targeted at stopping nurses and midwives from relocating abroad in search of greener pastures.
Abubakar said the council was protecting Nigeria’s interest because Nigerians have no other country.
The Registrar said these while addressing members of the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives, Abuja chapter, who staged a peaceful protest at the council’s office in Abuja.
The protesting nurses expressed displeasure over what they described as an attempt to hinder their freedom to pursue career opportunities, asking the council to address nurses’ welfare, salary scale, shortage of staff, and other rights.
The nurses and midwives were at the NMCN office singing and carrying placards around the premises peacefully.
Some of the placards read, “Address unemployment among nurses, address quackery, address nurses welfare.
Some of the placards read, “Address unemployment among nurses, address quackery, address nurses welfare”; “#No to verification rules. Stop frustrating the Nigerian nurses, we are going through a lot already, Protect nurses, protect healthcare”; “NMCN, we say no to the verification rules”; and “NMCN, don’t reduce nurses”.
The NMCN had on 7 February 2024, issued a circular revising the guidelines for requesting verification of certificates for nurses and midwives.
The council’s circular was released after The PUNCH reported the deactivation of the verification portal on NMCN’s website in December 2023.
The circular by the Registrar of the council, Dr Faruk Abubakar, read in part, “A non-refundable fee per application shall be paid for verification to foreign boards of nursing as specified on the portal. This shall cover the cost of courier services to the applicant’s institution(s) of training, place of work, and foreign board.
“Eligible applicants must have a minimum of two years post qualification experience from the date of issuance of the permanent practising licence. Any application with a provisional licence shall be rejected outright”.
The council also stated that applicants must have active practising licences with a minimum of six months to the expiration date, and processing of verification applications would take a minimum of six months.
It added that the implementation of the guidelines takes effect from 1 March 2024.
Speaking during the peaceful protest on Monday, one of the nurses’ spokespersons, Cynthia Adeyeri, urged the government to improve the welfare of nurses, instead of issuing new guidelines on certificate verification.
Adeyeri said, “We are to give the Registrar a letter and to express our displeasure over the certificate verification. We are saying no to making us to work two years before we can leave (the country), we are saying no to getting a letter of good standing from the CMD from our hospitals, and we are saying no other things in the circular.
“The government should have a dialogue with young nurses to ask us why we are leaving Nigeria. We have a poor health care infrastructure and that is why people are leaving; they want to go to where they have better pay and better welfare. The welfare of nurses in Nigeria is very poor.
“We want them to increase our pay and make the system better for the nurses and the patients”.
Addressing the nurses during the peaceful protest, the Registrar said the nurses’ complaints would be addressed as soon as possible.
Abubakar said, “We have listened to you and we are going to address it in a short time, in a couple of days. I have listened to you and I have heard you. I want to acknowledge the way you have mobilised and I want to assure you that your documents will be looked at holistically and we will address every issue”.
He said the council was not against the nurses and midwives travelling out of the country.
“Nigeria is our only country, we don’t have any other country apart from Nigeria. Nobody is against you travelling and whatever policy that is coming on board is in the best interest of Nigerians.
“You have written your complaints and we will look at them one by one and get back to you.
“Go back to your respective place of work, and I assure you that in a couple of days, we will respond”, he noted.
The NMCN is the only legal, administrative, corporate and statutory body charged with performing specific functions on behalf of the Federal Government to ensure the delivery of safe and effective nursing and midwifery care to the public through quality education and best practices.
The council is mandated by law to regulate the standards of Nursing and Midwifery education and practice in Nigeria and to review such standards from time to time to meet the changing health needs of the society.
