DUBIOUS CHANGE: NURSING TO GO INTO EXTINCTION IN NIGERIA AS BUHARI ABANDONS THEM TO JET ABROAD

‎I write on behalf of numerous students who graduated from Basic Schools of Midwifery in September 2014 and March 2015 respectively. Upon graduation, we were supposed to be mobilized for a one year mandatory Midwives Service Scheme (MSS), after which, our notifications and licenses will be given to us.

MSS is an initiative set up by the then Umaru Musa Yar’Adua Administration, that posts newly qualified midwives to Primary Health Centres(especially in the Northern parts of the country) in order to reduce the incidence of Maternal and Child mortality and mobidity in those areas. When ex-president Goodluck Jonathan took over power, the scheme was put under SURE-P and unfortunately, he was not re-elected into power. As it is, Buhari-led government sees SURE-P as a corrupt way which was used in diverting Government funds into some individual’s pocket.

The issue is, since this Administration took over power in May 2015, nothing has been said or heard about MSS. We are now been denied our notifications and licenses by Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria(NMCN), as they keep saying that MSS is a pre-requisite for our notifications and licenses to be released and so, their hands are tied.

One year has passed already. The govt has obviously forgotten that it’s predecessors initiated a scheme called MSS, thereby putting our lives on hold. We can neither further our education, nor can we find good jobs.

It is not our fault that there is no continuity in our Nigerian system of govt. Young and poor masses like us should not be punished for sins we did not commit. Please, help us plead with FGN and NMCN to release our notifications and licenses, so that we can move on with our lives as we no longer want to be mobilised for MSS. We just want to further our education and contribute our own quota to the Nigerian health sector.

After three years of hardwork in school‎ and passing the ‘almighty’ Council examination, we should not be made to undergo this psychological trauma. The painful thing is, in about a month’s time(March 2016), another set of midwives will graduate and add to the number of those of us already in this helpless situation. Again, towards the end of the year, sales of forms into Basic Schools of Midwifery will commence and parents who are oblivious of our present predicament will purchase the forms for their wards, unknown to them that it will become a fruitless journey in the end. With this attitude of the FGN and NMCN towards young midwives, I am positive that younger ones who want to become midwives will be discouraged.

FGN and NMCN, please release our notifications and licenses…we worked had for it, we earned it. Please, stop frustrating us.