13th October, 2018
The Niger chapter of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) has urged Niger Government to speed up action in the proposed School of Medicine at the IBB University in the state to avert dearth of doctors.
The chairman of the chapter, Dr Abdullahi Jibril, in Minna on Saturday that such gap had robbed the state of medical doctors in their numbers, saying it was high time Niger Government established school of medicine to address the huge dearth of doctors.
According to him, the lack of such school in the state-owned university had forced many candidates to seek admission to study medicine outside the state.
He added that many candidates seeking for admission were not always obliged by the schools because those schools give preference to their indigenes
He noted that some parents paid huge amounts of money to send their children and wards abroad at the detriment of their meagre salary.
“I can say that establishing a school of medicine at IBBU will help to curb educational tourism abroad”, he said.
Jibril, therefore, urged the Niger Government to expedite action on the proposed school of medicine and stressed the need for improved working conditions in hospitals in the state.
He said “we need modern medical equipment to meet the medical challenges of the time: we urge the state government to provide us with contemporary working equipment for maximum service delivery.”