Dr Abubakar Bukola
Saraki (CON)
The
President of the 8th Senate &
The
Entire 8th Senate,
Federal
Republic of Nigeria.
The
National Assembly Complex,
3
Arms Zones,
P.M.B
141, Garki, Abuja, Nigeria.
Sir,
NCC BOARD: A PASSIONATE
DEMAND TO RETRACT THE DEMEANING LABEL PLACED ON THE NURSING PROFESSION
Preamble:
This
letter is meant for all the Senators of the 8th Senate and we shall
be glad if it is read openly on the floor of the senate. We wish to start by
sincerely appreciating the Senate President, Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki, and the
entire 8th senate for finding time, despite burning distractions, to
assist us in the struggle for inclusion of Graduates of Bachelor of Nursing
Science (B.N.Sc) degree in the internship training scheme of our health system
that hitherto accommodated university graduates of every other core healthcare
disciplines except nursing. When we cried out to the senate about the injustice
of wrongful exclusion of the graduates of B.N.Sc degree through our letter, Ref
no. UGONSA/015/ABS/01 dated 27th November 2015, you replied and assured us that
the senate shall look into the matter in your letter Ref
no.NASS/S/SP/R/CORRP/015/1/067 dated 16th December 2015. We cannot but be very
grateful that in less than a year after you gave us the assurance, your candid
intervention in no small measure did justice to the issue and culminated in the
rectification of the anomaly by the National Council on Establishment (NCE)
during its 39th meeting held in Minna, Niger State, in July this
year.
2 2.
This notwithstanding, our hearts have
been saddened and made very heavy again by the recent unwarranted demeaning
punch our revered upper legislative chamber mendaciously threw against our
profession.
3 3.
The declaration by the 8th senate
that Rt (Hon.) Nurse Ezekiel Yissa Benjamin was not good enough to be confirmed
to serve as a Non-Executive Commissioner in the board of the National
Communications Commission (NCC), on 17th November 2016, simply
because he has a nursing background is a calamitous precedent and a demeaning
blow too dangerous for us to ignore as a profession.
4 4.
On the qualifications of members of the
commission’s board, the NCC Act 2003 unambiguously stated in Chapter II part 2,
section 7 (1) a to h, that commissioners shall be persons of recognized
standing qualification and experience in one or more of the following fields:
finance or accounting, law, consumer
affairs, telecommunication engineering, information technology, engineering
generally, economics and public
administration. (Please kindly refer to the document attached as Annexure
A).
5 5.
Having retired as a Deputy Director in
the Civil Service and thereafter continued to excel in Public Service, becoming
a Chief law-maker, the Speaker of the Honourable Kwara State House of Assembly,
and the Chairman of Conference of Speakers, without any blemish, we are at a
loss as per why his glowing exploits and experiences in law-making and public
administration, which was the very reason that informed his nomination, did not
count in the eyes of the senators but his nursing background, which has no bearing
whatsoever with the matter of his nomination, counted heavily.
6.
The Act succinctly provided the a person
nominated for the post of commissioner must have a recognized standing
experience in at least one of the afore-listed fields, but good enough Rt
(Hon.) Nurse Yissa has a strong recognizable experience in at least two of the
fields, notably, law-making, a very important area in law, and public
administration. Will it be academic to candidly emphasize that experience in
law as stipulated by the Act does not necessarily mean being a lawyer but
encompasses experience in any area of law such as law-making (as is the case
with the legislators), law-interpretation (as is the case with lawyers and
judges) or any other area of law? For what reason therefore can the
rationalization that resulted in failure to acknowledge the above stated
recognizable standing experiences in law and public administration of Rt (Hon.)
Nurse Yissa not be regarded by Nurses and Nigerians generally as lame and
political?
7 7.
Since available records also show that
persons, with lesser pedigree than Rt (Hon.) Nurse Yissa, have been confirmed
by the senate in the past, to served in this very board, does it not smack of
double standard, aimed at satisfying a bearing interest, that Rt (Hon.) Nurse
Yissa was clumsily left out? Or does it mean that our distinguished senators do
not take time to review their records any longer? Or can it be true that the
existing precedence was dumped for this strange methodology simply out of a
vested strong resolve to get Rt (Hon.) Nurse Yissa tackled by all means?
8 8. On the alternative, we wish to be
furnished with any other reason for the age-long legislative camaraderie of
“bow and go”, accorded to former legislators who were nominated for
confirmation by the senate, if not for their recognized standing experience in
law-making and public administration.
9 9. How else do our distinguished Senators
want us to view the sudden and surreptitious evaporation of such legislative
camaraderie during the turn of Rt (Hon.) Nurse Yissa, a distinguished law-maker
and an astute public administrator, who also hails from Kwara State, same as
the incumbent Senate President, who was a Governor of the State, if not as
politically motivated occasioned by political differences?
1 10. We would not have bordered had the
Senate coined any other reason for his rejection than the lame, feeble and
unconnected citation of his nursing background. Because we verily understand
that our profession is a noble one that is as gainfully challenging and rewarding
as any other profession where brilliant scholars distinguish themselves, we
would have earnestly dismissed this uncharitable implicit classification of
nurses as people that perform below average as “a cheap beer parlour talk” but
for the hallowed place it came from and the weighty negative consequences it
portends for our present and future generations.
1 11. Sadly, we are unfortunately stunned to
wonder whether you, our distinguished senators, ever contemplated the
psychological injury you were inflicting on all of us, patriotic Nigerians with
nursing background, that are selflessly giving our best, everyday and every
time, for the betterment and progress of this country or the Nigerian
youths studying nursing in various
universities or schools of nursing within and outside Nigeria before ruthlessly
devaluing us in this unprecedented manner that now portends that no matter how
glowing our exploits, experience, attributes, strides and achievements in public service may be or how
towering our proven character, capacity and competence may be or how
meritorious our services to our dearest
fatherland maybe, we can never be good enough for confirmation for higher
service by the senate when nominated for such?
12. Contrary to our expectations that our
revered 8th Senate, which in our own assessment has so far performed
above average, would find it reasonable to amend the myriads of obsolete and
flawed sections in the Act establishing the Nursing and Midwifery Council of
Nigeria (NMCN), to be in tune with current trends and international best
practices, with needful contemporary legal enablement for nurses and midwives
to add greater values to Nigerian Health Services, what we got was this unexpected heart wreck- the unwarranted blatant devaluation and
demeaning of the nursing profession.
13. Obviously, if there is anything our
distinguished senators needed to attack in Nursing, it should have been the
obsolete and flawed established legal framework for Nursing education and
practice in Nigeria (the NMCN establishment Act) titled “An Act to establish the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria for
the registration of nurses and midwives in Nigeria and State Nursing and
Midwifery Committees and to provide for the discipline of nurses and midwives
and other ancillary matters [1979 No. 89. 1992 No. 83.]” and not this
needless assault on our collective sensibilities as a profession.
1 14. Since it seems you, Senators, have no
time for finding the flaws in the NMCN Act, which has unarguably contributed
much to the poor health indices of Nigeria, but have had abundant time to look
for a non-existent fault in Rt (Hon.) Yissa’s nursing background, let us humbly
help point out some sections in the said Act that your legislative sight should
rather have been directed to.
15. Section 20 of the NMCN Act that
stipulates a fine of not more than N1000 (one thousand naira), for any
individual found guilty of quackery, and a fine of not more than N2000 (two
thousand naira), for a hospital training or engaging the services of quacks
upon conviction by a high court of competent jurisdiction, in today’s economy,
is nothing but express endorsement and encouragement of quackery. Is it not a
mockery of the fight against quackery that after spending a huge sum to
prosecute an offender at the level of the High Court, the repercussion would be
a fine of not more than N1000 (for an individual) or not more than N2000 (for a
group)? When penalty for crimes that are made to serve a deterrent purpose is
trivialized, it loses its essence and in turn fuels the rampant commission of
such crimes with unbridled impunity. The high rate of quackery in nursing
fuelled by this flawed and obsolete Act has wrecked and shall continue to wreck
more havocs on our healthcare indices if left unamended. Earnestly, this is
what the legislative sight of our distinguished Senators should have caught
rather the nursing background of Rt (Hon.) Nurse Yissa that in no rational way
constituted a disadvantage to the matter of his nomination.
1 16. Not far from this is the section 22 that
places legal reins on Nurses and Midwives, preventing us from performing with the full set of
competencies, skills and knowledge for which we were educated, trained, and
licensed, notwithstanding that our Primary Healthcare Centres are in gross
shortage of skilled and knowledgeable manpower and would be energized for
optimum performance if the blanket restriction on our autonomy to practice what
we have been trained for are somewhat lifted (Please kindly find the documents
attached as Annexure B and C).
17.
In
summary, we wish to respectfully state that to us, members of the nursing
profession, the excuse given for rejection of Rt (Hon.) Nurse Yissa Ezekiel
Benjamin was empty, diversionary and very demeaning to our profession and
therefore not acceptable.
PRAYER
In the light of the foregoing, we
humbly demand that you kindly
a. retract
the demeaning label placed on our dear profession by reconsidering and
effecting the confirmation of Rt (Hon.) Nurse Ezekiel Yissa Benjamin.
b. amend
the establishment Act of the NMCN to
make it stringent to quackery and allow nurses and midwives the opportunity to
practice with the full
set of competencies, skills and knowledge for which we were educated, trained,
and licensed to enable Nursing and Midwifery practice in Nigeria optimize with
current trends and international best practices.
Submitted with deepest
sense of respect and responsibility.
Signed
Chief (Hon) S.E.O.
EGWUENU Nurse G.I. Nshi
National President
National Secretary
CC
Senator Gilbert Nnaji- Chairman
Senate Committee on Communication
Senator Samuel Anyanwu- Chairman
Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions
Engr. Babachir David Lawal- Secretary to
the Government of the Federation
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