…..says “Rejection of Igbo born medical house officers is criminal”
Prominent pro-democracy and civil rights advocacy group HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to direct his minister of Health and Social Welfare Dr. Ali Pate to immediately resolve the lingering controversy trailing the alleged rejection of seventeen newly posted medical House Officers to the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH) just as HURIWA has called for the dissolution of the Governing Board of the teaching hospital and the dismissal of the Chief Medical Director for promoting tribalism and ethnic division.
HURIWA also condemned the Medical, Dental Council for keeping mum on the disturbing development connected to the
Seventeen newly posted medical house officers to the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH) who have reportedly accused the hospital management of alleged discriminatory treatment and abrupt rejection.
HURIWA condemned the ethnic chauvinistic tendencies in the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital just as it stated that ethnic chauvinists have no place in the public service of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“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.
“It is sad that President Bola Ahmed 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.
“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.”
Comrade Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko the National Coordinator of the HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) who endorsed the media statement stressed that the action of the hierarchy of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital in rejecting the candidates for medical housemanship just for being of Igbo ethnicity, is a direct violation of section 42(1 and (2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended which absolutely prohibits discrimination and ethnic chauvinistic tendencies, thus: ” Chapter 4. Section 42. Right to freedom from discrimination
(1) A citizen of Nigeria of a particular community, ethnic group, place of origin, sex, religion or political opinion shall not, by reason only that he is such a person:-
(a) be subjected either expressly by, or in the practical application of, any law in force in Nigeria or any executive or administrative action of the government, to disabilities or restrictions to which citizens of Nigeria of other communities, ethnic groups, places of origin, sex, religions or political opinions are not made subject; or
(b) be accorded either expressly by, or in the practical application of, any law in force in Nigeria or any such executive or administrative action, any privilege or advantage that is not accorded to citizens of Nigeria of other communities, ethnic groups, places of origin, sex, religions or political opinions.
(2) No citizen of Nigeria shall be subjected to any disability or deprivation merely by reason of the circumstances of his birth.”
HURIWA noted that the affected doctors, posted to UCTH by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN), said they arrived in Calabar from different parts of the country to commence their mandatory one-year housemanship, only to be informed that the hospital would not clear them to resume duty.
One of the house officers, who spoke to the media in Calabar, said they reported at the hospital on a Monday in line with their posting letters issued via the MDCN online portal. “We were issued posting letters instructing us to resume within two weeks. There was no indication that the hospital had rejected us or that clearance was conditional,” the doctor said.
According to the source, the problem began when they reported to the hospital’s administrative unit, where officials informed them that UCTH management had petitioned the MDCN over what it described as “discrepancies” in the posting list.
Hospital officials, the doctors alleged, raised concerns that 15 of the 17 house officers were from the same ethnic group, questioned the absence of any indigene of Cross River State on the list, and queried why only 17 names were posted despite claims that the hospital had 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,” the source alleged.
The house officers further claimed that the hospital accused some of them of paying to secure postings, an allegation they said was never substantiated.
“They said they had evidence that people paid to get slots, but no proof was shown. Instead of investigating those involved, they rejected all of us,” the doctor added.
The development, according to the affected officers, left many of them stranded after relocating to Calabar. Some said they were forced to sleep on bare floors in makeshift spaces within the hospital premises due to lack of accommodation and uncertainty surrounding their status.
HURIWA is calling for an end to this sort of illegality of denying citizens of their positions only because they are of a particular ethnic group just as HURIWA said this issue demands an immediate presidential intervention.
*COMRADE EMMANUEL NNADOZIE ONWUBIKO,
NATIONAL COORDINATOR,
HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA). MONDAY, JANUARY, 26TH, 2026.
