23/07/2024
The House of Representatives has asked the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria to reopen its website and start verifying Nurses and Midwives based on the previous guidelines, not the revised guidelines dated February 7, 2023.
This is to be done until an investigation by the House Committee on Health Institutions is concluded.
Dr. Patrick Umoh raised a motion of urgent public importance emphasising the need to safeguard institutional integrity and address any misinterpretation of the Houseโs resolution by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria.
Umoh highlighted the Houseโs constitutional authority to enact laws for the peace, order, and good government of the Federation, including the power to enforce its resolutions and compel an executive agency to carry out a specific act in the public interest.
He recalled that the House previously urged the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria, through a resolution on Tuesday, 27th February 2024, not to implement the Revised Guidelines for Verification dated February 7, 2023, pending an investigation by the House.
He said by a letter dated 13th March 2024 and received on 14th March 2024, the Clerk to the National Assembly communicated the Houseโs Resolution of Tuesday, 27 February 2024 to the Registrar/ CEO of the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria.
According to him, upon the receipt of the Houseโs Resolution, the Council immediately shut down their site for verification of Nurses and Midwives, and boldly and maliciously wrote on the site: โVerification services suspended in compliance with the directive of the House of Representatives of the Federal Republic of Nigeriaโ
He said further that the House did not by any stretch of the imagination or interpretation request the Council to shut down their site for verification of nurses, rather it requested the Council not to implement its Guidelines dated February 7, 2023, pending investigation by the House.
He argued the shutting down of the site for verification of nurses by the Council is done contrary to, and in total disregard for, the Houseโs Resolution of Tuesday, 27 February 2024, and expressed concern that the Council is acting in bad faith and deliberately so to portray the House in bad light to pit House against the Nigerian Nurses and Midwives, and by extension, the Nigerian masses.
He said that over 4 months since the site was maliciously shut down by the Council, thereby denying nurses and midwives the right to pursue their dreams and earn a living in line with international conventions of which Nigeria is a signatory, there is the need to protect and preserve the Houseโs institutional sanctity and name and correct the erroneous impression created by the Council against the House
Source: The Nations Newspaper
