NURSES IN LAGOS PROTEST NEW CERTIFICATE VERIFICATION GUIDELINES
Read Time:5 Minute, 28 Second
By Aishat Momoh. O.
On Monday, nurses from Lagos State’s public and private hospitals staged a peaceful protest against the new standards for certificate verification.
Under the auspices of the Naija Nurses Forum, the nurses voiced their discontent with what they called tyranny while urging the Federal Government to reopen the verification portal without any restrictions.
The standards for nurses’ and midwives’ certificate verification have been revised in a letter released by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria on February 7, 2024.
According to the memo from the NMCN, qualified candidates need to have worked as permanent practitioners for at least two years after receiving their licences.
All state ministries of health, university teaching hospitals, federal and specialty medical centres, NANNM headquarters, universities that offer nursing programmes, colleges of nursing sciences, schools of nursing and midwifery, all post-basic nursing programmes, and the zonal offices of all nursing and midwifery councils were all addressed in the memo.
However, the irate nurses protested the new verification standards and demanded that the council undo them in a matter of 48 hours.
Our correspondent observed the protest, which took place on Lagos streets between Harvey Road and University Road, the Neuropsychiatrist Hospital in Yaba, and the NMCN zonal headquarters.As they demonstrated, the irate nurses were spotted holding placards and singing solidarity songs.
Some of the placards read: “We no gree for NMCN free Nigeria Nurses”, “Nurses no be slaves No to a letter of good standing from anybody”, “We are not here to fight we just want the policy withdrawn”, “Let nurses breath, say no to NMCN verification rules”, “Don’t cage your professional collegues”.
The forum’s coordinator, Thomas Abiodun, told our correspondent that the new verification standards are an attempt to discourage nurses from looking for better opportunities. claiming that the directive is shameful for the nursing profession and violates the fundamental human rights of nurses.
She stated, “The directive is very embarrassing. It’s an attempt to frustrate the nurses from seeking greener pastures and self-development. It is really embarrassing but we will take measures to look at it.
“The verification portal shutdown by NMCN without prior notification and we are also here to condemn the new guidelines set by NMCN for verification.
We are nurses licensed by the NMCN.”
“So, lawfully, we should not be expecting our own regulatory body to refer us back to any head or CMD to give us authorization letter for our own verification.”
“We are saying no to this and we want the government to reverse this within 48 hours. We want them to revisit these guidelines, it is wrong and wicked.”
“We expect the NMCN registrar to fight for all these things rather than coercing nurses to forcefully stay back. And as it is now, it is affecting only nurses in Nigeria. There are some nurses abroad like those in Canada that want to change their province, they are unable to do so because the verification portal has been shutdown. Those in the U.S are unable to move from one state to another because they are unable to access the verification portal.”
So, we say NO to this new verification guidelines! We say No to oppression of Nurses! In this vein, We say “WE NO GO GREE FOR ANYBODY”.
Nurse Thomas, however, called on the NMCN registrar to work towards proper remuneration for nurses.
Meanwhile, Kunle Emmanuel mentioned that verification or relocation of nurses is not the issue, but, under employment of Nigerian Nurses. He added that so many Nuses are unemployed while challenging the higher authorities to put out vacancies and see whether the nurses will not apply.
He said, “We have thousands of Nurses that are unemployed. What we are asking is this, Remove the verification circular that you have just released, employ nurses, they are all over the country. You claimed there is shortage of nurses but it is not true.”
“I challenge all Nigerians to advertise for Nurses employment today, you will see millions of Nurses that wants to work.”
Another agitated nurse, Comrade Kazeem, while giving his speech, sent NMCN Lagos state branch to the National body, demanding the reversal of that particular circular, which he described as satanic.
He also, demanded that the particular 2hours of so called ‘you have to be in the system to be reversed’.” The so-called 6-month minimum of verifying our results or certificates.”
“I want to challenge NMCN here today. Are you not the one that issued that particular certificates to us?, Are you saying the certificates being released to us is a fake?, We are not abusing you, but we are challenging you.”
“Try as much as possible to sanitize your system. Forget about sanitizing us here. Before releasing any certificates or any license, check it very well, verify it very well and issue it to us.” he said.
The verification process is a system that the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN) regulatory body introduced to stop the problem of quackery in the country. It is also, one of the requirements needed for a nurse to be able to travel abroad either to work or to study.
Another male nurse who joined the protest, Stephen Gov said, if after two years of recieving verification without relocation abroad, the verification would expire and the nurse will have to reapply for another verification.
According to the nurses, di new regulations wey dem no go accept include:
- Increment of verification fee to N300,000
- Verification period will take minimum of six months and 18 months maximum
- Nurses needs to present “letter of good standing” from the CMD of the hospitals where they work as part of verification requirement
- Fresh graduates needs to work in Nigeria for two years before they will be eligible for verification
“Some of us, our salaries are not up to N80,000 a month. How then can we get 300k for verification fees with economy of today? Verification is supposed to be free, it’s like that in other countries.”
“I have worked as a nurse for five years now but, I can’t boast of any reasonable money in my account. You cannot even buy a bicycle as a nurse working in Nigeria.” Nurse Stephen added.
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