47 Nigerian medical students evacuated from war-torn Sudan in 2023 are in limbo as they struggle to meet a critical documentation requirement set by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN), jeopardizing their participation in the upcoming licensing examinations.
The students, formerly enrolled at Sudan International University (SIU), were in their final year when violent conflict broke out in Sudan.
In response, the Federal Government evacuated them back to Nigeria. With approval from the National Universities Commission (NUC), the students were allowed to complete their medical training at the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital (UDUTH) in Sokoto, under a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between SIU and UDUTH.
According to the students, they resumed academic activities at UDUTH in December 2023, underwent clinical rotations in major medical disciplines, and graduated in October 2024. Their degrees were conferred by SIU.
Now, as they prepare for the MDCN examination scheduled for June 2025, they face a major obstacle: the requirement to present a first entry visa and last exit visa from Sudan.
Most of the students say their passports were lost or left behind during their emergency evacuation, making it impossible to produce the requested documents.
“We graduated in 2024 and received SIU certificates. But due to the war, none of us have exit visas.
“Our passports are either lost or still in Sudan,” said one of the affected students in Abuja.
Najid Hassan, President of the Nigerian Students Association at SIU, emphasized that the students completed all required clinical training under the supervision of qualified consultants at UDUTH.
He appealed for the Federal Government’s urgent intervention to ensure the students are allowed to register for the exam.
The MDCN, which regulates medical and dental practice in Nigeria, requires foreign-trained candidates to submit specific pages of their international passports showing visa and immigration stamps as part of the assessment exam process.
This is stipulated under Section 9 of the Medical and Dental Practitioners Act.
Although MDCN Registrar, Dr. Fatima Kyari, in a 2024 statement, acknowledged the impact of crises like COVID-19, and the wars in Ukraine and Sudan, she clarified that academic collaborations such as the one with UDUTH do not automatically qualify as recognized clinical training under MDCN guidelines.
Kyari added that students who transferred to accredited Nigerian institutions and completed their training had been indexed and registered without needing to sit for the Foreign-Trained Medical and Dental Graduates (FTMDG) exams.
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The Federal Ministry of Education has acknowledged the issue.
The Director of University Education, Rakiya Ilyasu, advised the students to formally write to the Minister of Education and copy the Director of Education Support Services to help resolve the matter.
Meanwhile, the NUC’s Deputy Executive Secretary, Chris Maiyaki, also encouraged the students to escalate their case to the education ministry for official resolution.
Efforts to obtain comments from the Nigerians in the Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) and the management of Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto (UDUS) were unsuccessful.
The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Bashir Garba, said he would respond at a later time.
As the June exam date draws near, the students are urging authorities to act swiftly to ensure their years of training are not lost to bureaucratic hurdles.
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