The Medical and Dental Specialists Association in Basic and Medical Sciences of Nigeria (MEDSABAMS) has appealed to the Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Julius A. Okojie, OON, to prevail on Nigerian universities to recognise the Association and ensure prompt payment of its members’ allowances.

 

Briefing the Executive Secretary, during a courtesy visit to the NUC Secretariat, last week, the leader of the delegation, Professor M.B.T. Umar, thanked the Executive Secretary for recognising the Association as an entity and for granting him and his team audience.

 

Professor Umar stated that the Association was born out of the necessity to bring together all Medical Doctors with MBBS, with the aim of improving medical research, medical education as well as the welfare of members of the Association. He noted that Doctors allowances and other welfare packages had been forgotten, adding that some institutions recognised the Association while others did not, thereby bringing suffering to their members in those institutions.

 

The MEDSABAMS President listed some of the members’ entitlements which had not been paid to include Doctors Allowance, Specialists Allowance, Non-clinical allowance, Hazard allowance, Teaching allowance and Rural allowance for those of its members in the rural areas. He affirmed that most of these entitlements were agreed upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in 2009 but that its members had been frustrated thereby forcing some of them to go to South Africa, where they got better entitlements.

 

Responding, the Executive Secretary told the Association that for proper recognition, they needed to first register with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and find a way of improving themselves, asking them to write officially to the Commission so that the NUC could communicate to the Vice-Chancellors of universities for their entitlement to be paid so as to ensure quality teaching in the medical schools.

 

Professor Okojie charged the MEDSABAMS members to have a followership of some corporate bodies which would help improve their skills and also be of benefit to the students and the Nigeria University System (NUS).

 

Other members of the delegation included; Dr. A. D. Abue, Dr. Yunusa Abdulmajeed, Dr. Aniekan Peter, and Ayannuga Olugbenga.