Doctors to meet health, education ministers over VC appointment

The Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria said it will meet with the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and the Federal Ministry of Education on Thursday to discuss the process of appointing a vice-chancellor at a university.

The association also said it will meet the Ministry of Health over its demands that the retirement age for medical consultants be 70 years, among others.

The National President of the association, Prof Muhammad Muhammad, disclosed this with our correspondent on Tuesday.

The association had expressed concerns regarding the exclusion of medical and dental lecturers based on the criteria used in the appointment for the selection process for the office of the vice-chancellor of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State.

It said the exclusion was not only unjust but undermined the critical role that medical and dental lecturers play in the academic and administrative leadership of the institution.

Muhammad said, “We will be meeting with the Ministry of Health tentatively on Thursday, regarding the appointment of a vice-chancellor and regarding our demand for an increase in retirement age for consultants and other demands.

“The ministry of health will write to us about the modalities of the meeting, and where the meeting will be held.

“We are also meeting the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education on Thursday, with the hope that if we will be able to make significant progress, fine, otherwise we will see if we can meet the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, on or before next Monday.”

The MDCAN, in its communique on October 16, stated that its National Executive Council resolved that it was unacceptable for any university in Nigeria to benchmark the requirements for the office of a vice-chancellor to the attainment of a PhD, without recognising the Medical and Dental Fellowships peculiar to the medical profession as an academic and professional qualification, which more than suffice wherever PhD is required.

It also emphasised that the government should take necessary measures to complete the process of harmonising the retirement age of consultants to 70 years to mitigate the effects of doctors’ migration.

The MDCAN’s president emphasised that the association was yet to see significant progress on its demands so far.

“The issue is that from what we’ve seen from our community is that by the expiry date on that Monday, we are going to convene an emergency NEC meeting.

“We have already asked all our chapters to conduct an emergency congress meeting in their various chapters to come up with a decision.

“But, the final decision will be taken by that emergency NEC meeting on Monday.

“There are virtually none (progress); it’s not only UNIZIK, there are other universities too, but we are using UNIZIK specifically.

“So we are talking generally and the advert should not be streamlined, and not to sideline any other qualified person from vying for the post,” he said.

He added that the association was not only calling for the removal of the VC in UNIZIK but would also make a statement to call for the removal of the recalcitrant UNIZIK council that went to sideline everybody, including the Senate of the university, in making such appointments.