Extortion of doctors

I have known MDCN website to be dysfunctional and intentionally so since 2014 when I graduated and was applying for provisional license. That the website is still moribund after five solid years, just further reinforced my assessment of the organisation. Ordinarily, I won’t mind paying N30,000 to MDCN/NMA for the building levy and annual practice […]

I have known MDCN website to be dysfunctional and intentionally so since 2014 when I graduated and was applying for provisional license. That the website is still moribund after five solid years, just further reinforced my assessment of the organisation. Ordinarily, I won’t mind paying N30,000 to MDCN/NMA for the building levy and annual practice license accordingly.

But then, I realised that as usual, I have to pay an MDCN staff later in 2020 to send my license. Or go to Abuja to collect it, as they will always carelessly tell you when you call for assistance. For how long will this continue? Whenever I see people sharing contacts of MDCN staff to call for assistance in doctors’ WhatsApp groups, it baffles me. We all know what happens when you call those guys. You bribe them to send your license.

The disjointed thinking in all this building levy drama is because nobody cared to fix the MDCN website so that our license will be sent to our individual profiles. It’s ridiculous to assume MDCN can’t design and maintain its website at a very affordable rate. I can mobilise a dozen of talented IT guys in Abuja to do it for them, even for free. That is, if it’s not possible to liaise and outsource such professionals from other government agencies like NITDA.

As a doctor working in Nigeria, it’s been this embarrassing that each year, one is subjected to this stress, humiliation and extortion to get your practice license across after dutifully paying for same. It is common knowledge among doctors that this corruption exists and many doctors are only left to grumble and nothing more.

I am a law-abiding medical doctor serving my country and demand nothing in return. I cannot pay N20,000 to MDCN/NMA for nothing while no effort is made by either bodies to ease the annual licensing process for me.

Dr Zahraddin Abdullahi

Hadejia General Hospital,

Jigawa State  [email protected]