The Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 general elections, Peter Obi, on Wednesday advised the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN) against hindering their members desiring to ‘Japa’ to other countries in pursuit of their dreams.
Obi urged the NMCN to seriously reconsider their recently updated guidelines for nurses’ verification, appealing to them not to impede nurses from seeking global opportunities with such stringent measures as contained in the guidelines.
He told the NMCN that earlier released revised guidelines for verifying nurses migrating abroad are widely seen as an attempt to discourage nurse migration from Nigeria.
The former Anambra State Governor, who has been an ardent supporter of Nursing and other Health practitioner’s education in the country, spoke during his visit to the College of Nursing Sciences at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Ihiala, where he donated N20 million for healthcare professional training.
Obi emphasized the importance of enabling Nigerian nurses to access better global opportunities.
“We should facilitate our nurses in maximizing their skills globally by implementing measures that grant them increased access to global opportunities. Nigerian nurses are highly sought after worldwide. By migrating and gaining international skills and experiences, they reinvest the same into our health sector for more growth,” said Obi.
Presenting an N20 million cheque to the Proprietor of the College of Nursing Sciences, Most Rev Jonas Benson Okoye, Obi reiterated his commitment to investing in critical areas of development which healthcare is number one and the healthcare worker is the front liner of this critical value chain component.
“Recent studies project a shortage of several million nurses globally by 2030, of which Nigeria is a part. With this foreknowledge we should invest more aggressively in training more nurses and establishment of nursing schools nationwide to meet the global market and demand, addressing the shortage,” Obi stated.
He emphasized that besides acquiring international exposure and experiences, these healthcare professionals would contribute substantial foreign remittances which already exceed that of the oil revenue
Obi urged the NMCN to reconsider and reverse their stringent measures, ensuring Nigerian nurses receive their verifications promptly, as previously done.