NMA Condemns FG’s Alternative Medicine Board Bill
The Federal Government’s sponsorship of a bill on the establishment of a Traditional, Complementary, and Alternative Medicine Regulatory Board in Nigeria has been condemned by the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA.
The medical union also berated the government for not deeming it fit to immortalize its late member, Dr. Stella Ameyo Adadevoh, who paid the supreme price in protecting Nigerians from the spread of Ebola Viral Haemorrhagic Fever eight years ago.
The union in a communique issued at the end of its just concluded 2022 National Executive Council, NEC, meeting in Gombe State, observed that “some components of the bill will be in conflict with the statutory functions of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, MDCN.”
The meeting, according to the communique, observed with great pains that eight years after paying the supreme price in the line of duty while protecting Nigerians from the spread of Ebola Viral Haemorrhagic Fever, the government had not deemed it fit to immortalize Dr. Stella Ameyo Adadevoh. The NEC noted that this was a grave injustice and a disincentive for patriotic Nigerians.
The NEC in the communique signed by NMA President, Dr. Uche Ojinmah, and Secretary General, Dr. Jide Onyekwelu, also noted with deep concern that health threats were increasing in every part of Nigeria and that poor healthcare infrastructure, insufficient and obsolete equipment, human resource shortage, poor remuneration of health workers, medical brain drain, inadequate funding of the health sector, abuse of referral system, inter professional rivalry and insecurity, were the major threats to effective healthcare delivery in the country.
