Members of the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) and the Assembly of Healthcare Professional Associations (AHPA) on Thursday, March 26, staged a protest in Abuja against a bill seeking to grant the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) sole regulatory powers over the country’s health sector.
The protesters, who converged at the Unity Fountain carrying placards with various inscriptions and chanting solidarity songs, before marching towards the national assembly, are calling for the immediate withdrawal of House Bill (HB) 2695.
They argue that the proposed legislation, which seeks to amend the medical and dental practitioners act, would effectively subject all other healthcare professionals, including nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists, and other non-physician workers, to the unilateral authority of the MDCN.
Nigeria’s health sector is currently regulated by various independent professional bodies, each overseeing its own discipline.
The aggrieved workers noted that vesting sole regulatory powers in the MDCN would undermine these existing professional councils and create a dangerous imbalance within the sector.
They further warned that the proposed executive health bills would trigger regulatory conflicts across the sector, disrupting the existing framework that governs professional practice in Nigeria’s healthcare system, and cautioned that only alignment with global health regulatory best practices would be acceptable.
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