The Nigerian Association of Community Pharmacists has urged President Bola Tinubu to take immediate action to address what it sees as the increasing dominance of physicians in the fields of education and health.
ACPN warned that such practices are detrimental to national development and inclusive governance.
The pharmacists made this known in an open letter signed by their National Chairman, Ambrose Ezeh, and his Secretary, Omokhafe Ashore, dated June 16, 2025.
The letter titled, “Call off these bluffs in national interest,” followed reports of industrial action by members of the Medical and Dental Consultants’ Association of Nigeria at the University of Calabar, who downed tools over the appointment of a new Vice-Chancellor.
According to the ACPN, the protest is part of a wider trend, referencing a similar situation at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, where the appointment of a VC was nullified by the Federal Ministry of Education because MDCAN members at the institution went on strike.
It said in the last few years, the Nigerian Medical Association, MDCAN, and the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors have become audacious in Nigeria because the FG inadvertently boosted a culture of fascism in the health and labour sectors between 2015 and 2023, and now the Health and Education Sectors through the appointment of physician–ministers in these crucial sectors.
According to the association, since 1985, only physicians have been appointed as Chief Medical Directors or Medical Directors of federal health institutions based on a misinterpretation of eligibility criteria.
