The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to urgently intervene in the controversy surrounding the alleged rejection of 17 newly posted medical house officers at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH), Cross River State.
National Coordinator of the group, Comrade Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko, in a statement issued on Monday, urged the President to direct the Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Ali Pate, to immediately resolve the situation, which it described as discriminatory and unconstitutional.
HURIWA alleged that the house officers were rejected by the hospital management on the basis of their Igbo ethnicity, describing the development as criminal, divisive, and unacceptable in a federal institution. The group also called for the dissolution of the UCTH Governing Board and the removal of the hospital’s Chief Medical Director, accusing the management of promoting ethnic chauvinism in public service.
The organisation further criticised the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) for what it described as silence in the face of the allegations, despite being the body that posted the doctors to UCTH for their mandatory one-year housemanship.
According to HURIWA, the affected doctors arrived in Calabar from different parts of the country to resume duty in line with their MDCN posting letters, only to be informed that the hospital would not clear them for work.
One of the doctors, who spoke anonymously to journalists, said the house officers reported to the hospital within the stipulated time frame and were not previously informed of any rejection or conditional acceptance.
The doctors alleged that UCTH officials raised objections over the ethnic composition of the posting list, noting that most of the house officers were Igbo and that no indigene of Cross River State was included. They also claimed the hospital questioned why only 17 names were posted despite reportedly having capacity for 50 house officers.
“They openly complained about the number of Igbos on the list and said a particular tribe was saturating the hospital,” one of the doctors alleged.
The officers also denied allegations by the hospital that some of them paid to secure their postings, saying no evidence was presented and that all of them were rejected without investigation.
The development reportedly left several of the affected doctors stranded in Calabar, with some forced to sleep on bare floors within the hospital premises due to uncertainty over their status and lack of accommodation.
Reacting to the situation, HURIWA’s National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko, described the alleged rejection as a violation of Section 42 of the 1999 Constitution, which guarantees freedom from discrimination based on ethnicity, place of origin, or circumstances of birth.
He called on President Tinubu to direct the MDCN to enforce the immediate acceptance of the house officers at UCTH and to sanction officials found culpable, warning that ethnic discrimination threatens national unity and undermines professionalism in the health sector.
HURIWA Seeks Tinubu’s Intervention Over Rejection of 17 House Officers
