Posted by Only doctors who have earned fellowship credentials from accredited institutions in Nigeria are considered specialists by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN).
In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja, MDCN Registrar Dr. Tajudeen Sanusi responded to a request from the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) to recognize the granting institutions’ membership certificates.
The association had included the revocation of the claimed downgrading of the membership certificate by MDCN as part of its requests in multiple communiqués and correspondences to the Federal Government.
As part of their education to become doctors in Nigeria, students earn credentials from the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria (NPMCN), the West African College of Physicians (WACP), and the West African College of Surgeons (WACS).
However, Sanusi stated that the fellowship certificate, and not the membership certificate, is what is recognized in Nigeria.
Membership is not the norm in Nigeria, but rather stems from a classification used by other West African countries because to a shortage of specialists.
You need the fellowship, not the membership, to be recognized as an expert in Nigeria. They (NARD) can’t just decide one day to start instructing us what to do.
That’s why the NPMCN is so certain that “no,” we can’t dilute the significance of what we have in Nigeria.
As he continued, “All along it has always been a fellowship, but because of the lack of experts in some other West African countries, they now felt that if they gave them membership with, they could get some appointments.”
However, with membership, you have not completed your programme; it is not an end in itself. This was due to a lack of competence and the fact that they outnumbered Nigerians, particularly in francophone countries.
Nigeria made concessions so they could do what they want, but that doesn’t give them license to devalue what we offer.
According to the author, “the implication of that membership they are talking about is that in the future we will lack trainers as we will not have people that will be training other people again.”