•Note: Picture above shows nurses neatly dressed in their professional uniform and is unrelated to the Japa story or the 42,000 nurses that have left Nigeria.
The Registrar of the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria, Faruk Abubakar, has said that over 42,000 nurses left the country in the past three years.
Abubakar, disclosed this while speaking on Channels TV on Tuesday, February 13, 2024, on the controversy surrounding the new certificate verification guidelines released by the council.
The Daily Crucible reports that the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM) had faulted the new guidelines which require Nigerian nurses and midwives seeking verification of certificate(s) to foreign nursing boards or councils to have two years post-qualification experience.
The Nurses under the aegis of the NANNM, Abuja and Lagos chapters, had on Monday protested the new circular on certificate verification by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN).
The nurses stormed the NMCN’s offices in Abuja and Lagos to register their dissatisfaction and threatened a nationwide strike over the new guidelines they reckoned as an effort to abridge their freedom.
NMCN, in its revised guidelines, states that applicants seeking verification of certificates from foreign nursing boards and councils must possess two years of post-qualification experience from the date of issuance of the permanent practicing license.
This was communicated in a memo dated 7 February and signed by the NMCN Chief Executive Officer and Registrar, Faruk Abubakar.
The policy is said to targeted at arresting the Japa syndrome among nurses which impels many of them to leave Nigeria for the United Kingdom and other developed countries in search of greener pasture.
However, the nurses have demanded a reversal, urging the council to address other pertinent issues such as nurses’ welfare, salary scale, staff shortages, among others.
But speaking Channel TV, Abubakar said,“Let me make it clear today, in the last three years over 42,000 nurses left this country and the country needs them,” Abubakar said.
“Government policies especially the present Renew Hope Agenda, a lot of policies are coming onboard, the Federal Ministry of Health came up with so many policies where Nigerian healthcare system will be improved.
“Now if we allow every Nigerian to leave as they are graduates, who are going to handle our healthcare services? Who is going to provide these services? We are Nigerians and it is our responsibility to these services.
“So we are not against anybody travelling but Nigerians must be served and must be provided with this quality healthcare since we are producing the quality and best nurses that are working anywhere in the world. Last year alone over 15,000 left, the number is increasing year by year.”.
