National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, is partnering with Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, MDCN, to ensure proper mobilisation of medical graduates for the compulsory one year service.

 

The collaboration of the two bodies emerged from a courtesy visit by Registrar of the council, Dr. Abdulmumini Ibrahim, who led a team of the council to office of the NYSC Director-General, Brig-Gen. Johnson Olawumi, in Abuja.

 

Last year, the scheme rolled out new policy requesting medical graduates to fully register with the MDCN as precondition for their mobilisation.

 

The policy, we gathered, was highly commended and welcome, but the council said there were pockets of challenges that could hinder registration of the young medical graduates.

 

During the meeting, Abdulmumini Ibrahim noted that delay in the release of certificate of medical graduates by schools should be looked into.

 

He said it was not proper that young medical graduates after one year internship programme still have their certificates withheld by the schools, adding that it was not like that in other parts of the world.

 

Abdulmumini expressed readiness to assist the NYSC in the area of verification, to ensure that competent medical graduates were mobilised for the service year, in addition to their desire to participate in NYSC Community Development Services, CDS.

 

Responding, NYSC DG, Brig-Gen. Johnson Olawumi, maintained that the partnership became necessary to ensure that medical graduates were not prevented from participating in the service year due to inability to register with the council.

 

Olawumi also decried a situation where prospective corps members presented fake medical reports to secure desired place of posting.

 

According to the DG, over 60 percent of the medical reports were found out to be fake, expressing fear that if those who will take the affairs of the future were now involved in forgery, “much needs to be done.”