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The Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria has called on President Bola Tinubu to urgently intervene in what it described as the growing domination of medical doctors in the health and education sectors.
ACPN warned that such practices are detrimental to national development and inclusive governance.
The pharmacists made this known in an open letter signed by their National Chairman, Ambrose Ezeh, and his Secretary, Omokhafe Ashore, dated June 16, 2025.
The letter titled, “Call off these bluffs in national interest,” followed reports of industrial action by members of the Medical and Dental Consultants’ Association of Nigeria at the University of Calabar, who downed tools over the appointment of a new Vice-Chancellor.
According to the ACPN, the protest is part of a wider trend, referencing a similar situation at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, where the appointment of a VC was nullified by the Federal Ministry of Education because MDCAN members at the institution went on strike.
It said in the last few years, the Nigerian Medical Association, MDCAN, and the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors have become audacious in Nigeria because the FG inadvertently boosted a culture of fascism in the health and labour sectors between 2015 and 2023, and now the Health and Education Sectors through the appointment of physician–ministers in these crucial sectors.
According to the association, since 1985, only physicians have been appointed as Chief Medical Directors or Medical Directors of federal health institutions based on a misinterpretation of eligibility criteria.
“In Nigeria, contrary to the dictates of common sense, only physicians are designated as CMDs/CEOs of FHIs since 1985 (40 years ago) because they wrongly interpreted the condition precedent for such appointments, which ties eligibility to being ‘medically qualified’ as implying that only physicians meet the eligibility criterion.
“In more damning circumstances, the Ninth NASS actually fraudulently passed a Federal Medical Centre bill later signed into law without public hearing which now makes it mandatory that only personnel registered by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria can be appointed as MD/CEO of Federal Medical Centres in Nigeria in 2023.
“Despite these insultingly ancient methodologies of physicians in Nigeria, to unlawfully create a dozen exclusive privileges for themselves in Nigeria, they have now with the blessing of Education Minister, Dr. Tunji Alausa, perfected a thriving culture of blackmail to proceed on strike everytime there is a contest for the position of VCs and the rules which are grounded in having a Ph.D. as condition precedent is applied because most of these physicians have professional qualifications of fellowships and not Ph.Ds. which are academic qualifications. Most public sector appointments have strict conditions precedent, which make the appointment lawful.
“The ineptitude of the FG to succumb to this shameful blackmail leaves a sour taste in the mouth as lawful stakeholders who are eligible based on the rules wallow in chronic invalidism imposed by the corrupted mechanism embraced by the Federal Ministry of Education,” the letter partly read.
The association also expressed disappointment in the Federal Ministry of Health for failing to properly involve pharmacists in key drug procurement processes, including the recent rollout of the MEDIPOOL initiative.
It renewed its call for the establishment of a Federal Drug Management Agency to standardise drug procurement and distribution across the country.
According to the association, Universal Health Coverage remains a mirage in Nigeria because the strategic pillars to achieve it are hindered by stumbling blocks.
“Your Excellency, we strongly demand a presidential intervention to make the government stand up to its stewardship responsibilities as the government.
“The government should change tactics in the skewed appointment of physicians who dominate sectors which are alien to medical practice while resisting ‘incursions’ into healthcare by any other cadre of practitioners, including colleagues, non-physician health professionals.
“It is important to inform Mr President that the humiliation health workers in healthcare are subjected to in deference to physicians is beginning to affect the psyche of youths in a generation where nobody wants to be an underdog.
“National growth, development, transformation and evolution will gradually become stunted if the Federal Government does not wield the big stick to stop the outrageously incomprehensible dominance of an overpampered group of civil servants who get what they request and are allowed to dictate a pittance for other skilled personnel in the Nigerian workforce.
“Your Excellency, the time to act is now in the public interest,” it concluded.&
