WE see the dispute between the National Universities Commission, NUC, and the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria, MDCAN, as a mere storm in a teacup which does not warrant the disruption of medical services in our tertiary health institutions and medical colleges.

On Wednesday, February 26, 2020, the MDCAN in several parts of the country made good the Association’s call on its members to withdraw their services unless the NUC rescinded its demand that medical consultants must henceforth have the Ph.D certificate for them to continue teaching in our medical schools.

In rejecting NUC’s circular, Chairman of the University College Hospital, UCH, Ibadan chapter of the MDCAN, Dr. Dare Olulana had argued that: “The originators of Medicine and medical practice have always trained their doctors relying on the expertise of fellowship earners because they have gone through carefully-developed residency programmes that carry both academic and professional contents unmatched by any other”.

On the other hand, the NUC according its Executive Secretary, Prof. Abubakar Rasheed, said its February 24, 2020 circular was misconstrued. He explained: “Our circular never prescribed Ph.D as a requirement for them to teach in the colleges of medicine.

“We say Ph.D is desirable but not necessary for progression in medical education…; if you are in the university system and you are a consultant, you will continue to be promoted but if you have a Ph.D, your promotion will be faster”.

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We are surprised that both sides have found it difficult to reach a compromise on this issue.

If a medical consultant does not need a Ph.D to continue as a lecturer in a medical school, then where is the casus belli that necessitates a strike or threat of strike which will hurt ordinary Nigerians?

What we see at play here, as usual, is the ego of regulators clashing with the labour power of professionals. We saw it at play between the Federal Government (through the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation) versus members of the Academic Staff of the Nigerian Universities, ASUU, over the implementation of the Integrated Personnel and Payment Information System, IPPIS, which remains unresolved.

And now, the NUC and MDCAN are engaged in a muscle-flexing that will only hurt the public who patronise public-funded tertiary hospitals as well as medical colleges in Nigeria.

As much as we appreciate the need for medical college teachers to strive and upgrade their certificates in order to benefit their students through increased research-based knowledge, we also know that the training and experience that doctors garner through professional practice are generally enough to enable them give their students quality instruction.

In this regard, the incentive for medical teachers to upgrade to Ph.D should be maintained without making it a condition to remain as lecturers.

VANGUARD