The group called for the immediate dissolution of the UCTH Governing Board and the removal of its Chief Medical Director for promoting tribalism and ethnic division.
The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has called on President Bola Tinubu and the Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Dr Ali Pate, to intervene in the alleged ethnic-based rejection of 17 newly posted medical house officers by the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH).
In a statement issued Monday, by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko, HURIWA described the refusal to clear the doctors for housemanship as “criminal”.
The group called for the immediate dissolution of the UCTH Governing Board and the removal of its Chief Medical Director for promoting tribalism and ethnic division.
HURIWA also criticised the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) for remaining silent on the issue.
According to HURIWA, the doctors, who were posted to UCTH by the MDCN, were prevented from resuming their mandatory one-year housemanship solely because 15 of the 17 officers are of Igbo ethnicity.
The group argued that such actions contravene Section 42 of the Nigerian Constitution, which prohibits discrimination based on ethnicity, place of origin, or other personal characteristics.
"Nearly seventy years after the Nigeria-Biafra civil war, we in the organised civil society community in Nigeria are miffed that some persons are continuously engineering Igbophobic tendencies and are inflicting punishments to youngsters who were mostly born in the new millennium and are obviously not even aware that there was a civil war that took place nearly a century ago only for them to be rudely and crudely reminded that this war that was fought by their ancestors called Nigeria-Biafra civil war is yet to end,” the statement read.
"It is sad that President Bola Tinubu, who had to change the national anthem back to the old version that is very emphatic on national integration, cohesion and unity of all ethnicities, has yet to make a public statement on the controversy ignited by the Igbophobic Chief Medical Director of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital.”
In its demand, HURIWA stated, "We are by this statement to the media appealing yo our globetrotting President who is reportedly travelling to Turkey, to immediately direct his minister of Health and Social Welfare Dr Ali Pate to ensure that the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria which posted the medical house officers enforce their acceptance and commencement of housemanship at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital immediately just as the President should remove the recalcitrant chief medical director for promoting tribalism in the Federal civil service of the Federation."
The controversy emerged when the affected house officers, posted to UCTH by the MDCN, arrived in Calabar from different parts of the country to begin their postings.
According to the doctors, they were issued posting letters instructing them to resume duty within two weeks, with no indication that their clearance would be conditional.
Problems arose when the officers reported to the hospital’s administrative unit, where officials informed them that UCTH management had petitioned the MDCN over alleged “discrepancies” in the posting list, according to Guardian.
The doctors claimed the hospital raised concerns about the predominance of Igbos on the list, the absence of Cross River State indigenes, and why only 17 names were posted despite claims of capacity for 50 house officers.
“They openly complained about the number of Igbos on the list. At a point, we were told that people from a particular tribe were saturating the hospital,” one officer was quoted as saying.
Some were further accused by the hospital of paying to secure postings, allegations the doctors insist were never substantiated.
The development left several officers stranded in Calabar.
Some reported sleeping on bare floors in makeshift hospital spaces due to a lack of accommodation and the uncertainty surrounding their status.
Efforts by the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Cross River State branch, and the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), UCTH chapter, reportedly yielded no resolution, with hospital management insisting the matter was beyond its control.
Repeated appeals to senior hospital officials reportedly ended with instructions for the doctors to vacate the premises and await further directives from the MDCN.
“We were told the list had been petitioned and might be cancelled. Yet, our MDCN portal still shows UCTH as our place of posting, and we have valid posting letters,” one officer was quoted as saying.
The doctors expressed frustration over poor communication between regulatory bodies and training institutions, warning that such experiences are contributing to the growing exodus of healthcare workers from Nigeria.
“These are the things pushing young doctors to leave Nigeria. You struggle to secure a posting, travel across states, only to be rejected without due process,” one of them reportedly said.
Prof. Innocent Abang, Chairman of the hospital’s Medical Advisory Committee, declined to comment on the matter, stating that it had been handed over to the Federal Ministry of Health.
Attempts to reach MDCN Registrar Prof. Fatima Kyari were unsuccessful, with her office citing meetings and unavailability.
HURIWA reiterated that ethnic discrimination in federal institutions is illegal and must be addressed immediately.
“This incident demands urgent presidential intervention to uphold constitutional rights, ensure fairness, and end ethnic discrimination in public service,” the group said.