Nigeria’s Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, has reacted to the planned five years mandatory service for doctors and dental practitioners being proposed by the House of Representatives.
A bill to ensure that Nigerian doctors and dentists serve the country for five years before being granted obtain a full licence has passed the second reading on the floor.
Reacting to the bill sponsored by the lawmaker representing Oshodi-Isolo II Federal Constituency, Ganiyu Johnson, Ngige frowned at the bill saying that it will put chains and shackles on doctors and dentists.
Speaking during an interview, Ngige said; “the bill in question, I don’t support it,” said Ngige, on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday, May 1.
He however stated that the legislator in question was “right” to put forward a private member’s bill — a proposed law introduced into a legislature by a lawmaker who is not acting on behalf of the executive branch.
“It’s not an executive bill,” Ngige explained. “Even the speaker cannot stop that bill because the man is coming from a constituency.”
Ngige however added, “For me, that’s trying to kill a fly with a sledgehammer.”
He argued that it is better for the Federal Ministry of Health to look to the medical school, at which level, dialogue could be initiated around fees payable.
“Those who cannot pay fees, you put them on bond,” he said.
Ngige who is also a trained doctor noted that as a scholarship recipient, he was “bonded” under the now-defunct East Central State Government.
“So, that is how they should go, not going to bring a bill that puts shackles and chains on the leg of anybody,” he said.
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