*** Asks the Medical and Dental Council to conduct examinations in the six geopolitical zones, like the Nigerian Law School

By Henry Umoru, ABUJA

The Senate has asked the Medical and Dental Council to conduct examinations in the six geopolitical zones, like the Nigerian Law School.

The Senate has also called on the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria to allow foreign students from war-torn countries with certificates to sit for their professional exams.

The Upper Chamber has urged the Committee of Vice Chancellors to take in foreign students who fled war-ravaged countries to enable them to finish their programmes.

The Senate has also urged the council to allow those who graduated from Ukraine in 2023 and other countries affected by war with certificates to sit for the MDCN examination in July and November.

It further urged the Committee of Vice Chancellors to allow Nigerian students of medicine and Surgery and other professions who fled from war-torn countries to be absorbed into Nigerian universities to complete their various studies.

The resolutions of the Senate yesterday were a sequel to a motion by Senator Oyewumi Kamorudeen Olarere, PDP, Osun West.

According to him, the purpose of his motion was to allow foreign students who have finished their courses to follow the council’s rules and due process.

Presenting the motion, Olarere, who recounted how a few foreign medical and surgical graduates stormed his office during the recess, claimed that the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria was discriminating against them.

In his contribution, Senator Samaila Dahuwa Kaila (PDP, Bauchi North), who noted that there was nothing wrong with assessing graduates from foreign universities, said that there was nothing new for assessing students who graduated from foreign universities since he had passed the assessment after earning his degree from a Bulgarian university in 1988.

He said, “We all passed through the same process; having passed out of a Bulgarian university, we were assessed and worked till we retired.

“I am not saying we should bend the rules and it is a global practice, and so they should be assessed based on our standard.”

In his remarks, the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio, said that there are foreign students who fled war-torn Ukraine and even Sudan, adding that there are those who finished their education and received certificates, not those who left school in the middle of their studies.