Prof. Rasheed Arogundade, President, National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria, NPMCN, has decried the dissolution of Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, MDCN, saying, the dissolution will not only promote quackery in the health sector but will also allow cases of malpractices to continue unabated
Prof. Rasheed Arogundade, who spoke weekend at a press conference in Lagos to herald the College’s 33rd convocation, noted that MDCN should be exempted like the Universities Governing Councils have been exempted because of the disastrous consequences that such premature dissolutions had caused in the past.
He said that since MDCN is a regulatory body set up by statute to carry out specific functions, dissolving it is the same as completely stopping all the functions.
The NPMCN president said: “The Council’s functions are strictly professional and regulatory in nature, including medical education, accreditation of professional institutions, maintenance of standards, and enforcement of discipline and also monitoring of health institutions that are training doctors all over the country among others.
“Almost all the members of the Council are by representation except the Chairman who is usually not a political appointee but a senior member of the profession appointed by Mr. President.”
Arogundade lamented that the existing Council has barely spent one and half years of the statutory four years and should therefore be allowed to continue its work.
Speaking on the forthcoming convocation, the College President said no fewer than 341 convokees will be awarding Fellowship certificates this week, adding that the college has graduated 5,046 since inception.
He said the College will be awarding Honorary fellowship to the Governor of Ondo state for his achievements in the health sector while Prof. Emmanuel Otolorin, an erudite scholar and professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology will deliver the convocation lecture
He lamented that lack of funding has stalled the many projects that are pending in the institution.
Arogundade said “We have not received one kobo for the only capital project in the college since the third quarter of 2014.
The amount budgeted for us this year in the envelope is just N20 million out of the required N506, 037,218,75k remaining from the sum N599, 964, 877.89K approved by the Ministerial Tenders Board to complete the project. It is even uncertain that the paltry N20, 000,000 appropriated will be released this year as we are already at the end of the 3rd quarter.”
By Patrick Aigbokhan