The Chairman of, Senate Committee on Health, Ibrahim Oloriegbe, has kicked against move by the House of Representatives to amend the Medical Doctors and Dental Practitioners Act to mandate any Nigeria-trained medical or dental practitioner to practice in the country for a minimum of five (5) years before being granted full license by the Council.
In a statement, Senator Olorigebe says the proposed legislation violates the right to “Freedom of Movement in (Sec. 41) and “The right to freedom from discrimination” under (Sec. 42) as guaranteed by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, as amended.
He argued that the proposed legislation is not strong enough to curb the menace of brain drain in the country’s health sector resulting from the quest of medical doctors to seek better working conditions abroad.
According to him the factors responsible for brain drain are multifaceted and the mere denial of full practice license to medical practitioners as contained in the proposal will never resolve and may even aggravate them as it is not only medical doctors that are leaving the country for greener pastures abroad, but other health workers, as well as professionals in other fields of human endeavour.
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The Kwara Central lawmaker added that focusing attention only on the medical doctors is like curing one of many ailments that are threatening the life of a dying patient without finding solutions to the others.
The lawmaker advised the Federal Government to address the various factors that made skilled health workers desire to migrate out of Nigeria by ensuring improved system that will be attractive and make them unwilling to travel abroad to seek better living conditions.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
