Rights Group Demands Presidential Action Over “Criminal” Rejection of Igbo Medical Trainees

Muhammed Abubakar, Reporting

A leading pro-democracy organisation has issued a forceful appeal to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to intervene immediately in the alleged ethnic discrimination scandal at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH).

The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has urged the President to instruct the Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Ali Pate, to resolve the controversy surrounding 17 newly posted medical house officers who were reportedly rejected by the hospital management for being predominantly of Igbo ethnicity.

In a strongly worded statement endorsed by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko, HURIWA condemned the hospital’s actions as “criminal” and a clear violation of the Nigerian Constitution. The group has called for the immediate dissolution of UCTH’s Governing Board and the dismissal of its Chief Medical Director for “promoting tribalism and ethnic division.”

“Nearly seventy years after the Nigeria-Biafra civil war, we in the organised civil society community are appalled that some persons are continuously engineering Igbo-phobic tendencies,” the statement read. HURIWA expressed dismay that young medics, “mostly born in the new millennium,” were being punished based on a historical conflict they did not experience.

The group highlighted the contradiction between President Tinubu’s recent emphasis on national unity—symbolised by the reinstatement of the old national anthem—and his silence on this matter. They appealed to the “globetrotting President,” who is reportedly travelling, to direct Dr. Pate to ensure the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) enforces the officers’ acceptance and commencement of their mandatory housemanship at UCTH without delay.

HURIWA stressed that the hospital’s alleged actions directly contravene Section 42 of the Constitution, which guarantees every citizen freedom from discrimination based on ethnicity, place of origin, or circumstance of birth.

According to the affected doctors, they arrived in Calabar with official MDCN posting letters, only to be informed by hospital administrators that their clearance was denied. The officers alleged that UCTH management openly complained about the number of Igbo names on the list, questioned the absence of Cross River State indigenes, and raised unsubstantiated claims about “discrepancies” and paid-for postings.

The situation has left many of the young medics stranded in Calabar, with some reportedly forced to sleep on floors within the hospital premises due to a lack of accommodation and the sudden uncertainty of their positions.

HURIWA has called for an end to what it terms “this sort of illegality” and insists the issue demands urgent presidential intervention to uphold the rule of law and national cohesion.