Nurses are suing the health minister and others over new rules for verifying certificates

Due to the new certificate verification rules, a few Nigerian nurses have filed lawsuits against the Minister of Health as well as the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria.

On February 7, 2024, the NMCN published a circular updating the procedures for obtaining certification verification for midwives and nurses.

According to the council, candidates who want their certifications from international nursing boards and councils verified must have two years of post-qualification experience from the day the permanent practice license was issued.

The revised regulations went into effect on March 1, 2024.

Nurses in Abuja and Lagos consequently staged protests to call for the revocation of the new guidelines.

However, some unhappy nurses brought the Registrar of the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria, the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria, the Federal Ministry of Health, the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, and the Attorney General of the Federation before the National Industrial Court in Abuja on behalf of their fellow nurses.

Desmond Aigbe, Kelvin Ossai, Catherine Olatunji-Kuyoro, Tamunoibi Berry, Osemwengie Osagie, Abiola Olaniyan, Idowu Olabode, and Olumide Olurankinse are the complainants in the lawsuit with the filing number NICN/ABJ/76/2024.

They are pleading with the court to prevent the defendants or their representatives from enforcing the NMCN circular while the lawsuit is being adjudicated.

Additionally, the nurses asked the court to postpone the implementation of the new standards.

According to the 2nd Defendant’s circular dated February 7, 2024, the reliefs sought include: “An interlocutory order restraining suspending the commencement of the 2nd Defendant” and “REVISED GUIDELINES FOR VERIFICATION OF CERTIFICATE(S) WITH THE NURSING AND MIDWIFERY COUNCIL OF NIGERIA.” The circular originally proposed to go into effect on March 7, 2024, pending the hearing and decision of the Claimants/Applicants Originating Summons in this suit.

An interlocutory order prohibiting the defendants, their partners, parastatals, subjects, counterparts, agents, servants, privies, assigns, or anybody else acting on their behalf from acting in a way that could impede, restrict, or violate the freedom of Nigerian nurses and midwives to emigrate in search of better employment opportunities and training abroad

“An interlocutory order of the court directing the first and second defendants to continue verifying certificates or any other documents that applicants, their other intending colleagues, and other members of the nursing and midwifery profession request be made within seven days of the date of such application, while the claimants/applicants are having their originating summons heard and decided.”

Ode Evans, the plaintiffs’ attorney, informed the court during the hearing on Wednesday that he had only received the first and second defendants’ preliminary objections a short while ago.

He begged the judge to postpone the case so he could respond to their requests.

“I verified the application’s receipt from the first and second defendants this morning,” Evans stated. We will request a date so that we can submit our answers.

However, the matter was postponed until May 20 for a hearing by the judge, Justice Osatohanmwen Obaseki-Osaghae.

She commanded that the Attorney General of the Federation and the Federal Ministry of Health, who were not represented by counsel in court, receive notice of the hearing.