FG Urged to Support Medical Curriculum Review

Hammed Shittu in Ilorin

The Federal Government has been called upon to support the move to review the academic curriculum for medical practices to check obsolete practices and enhance efficiency.

The National President of Anatomical Society of Nigeria (ASN), Dr. Olugbenga Ayannuga, said this in Ilorin during the association’s 17th annual scientific conference and general meeting.

He said, “the truth is what people are trained within the 1950s will not work today.”

Ayannuga, an associate professor of Anatomy at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile Ife, also said Nigeria must rejig its medical academic curriculum to make graduates relevant to current realities.

“Apart from training doctors, healthcare professionals, nurses, physiotherapists, we already have a stand-alone discipline in Anatomy. It is also important that a product of that stand-alone programme in Anatomy must be mainstreamed into the working class (civil service), particularly, the ones related to health,” said Ayannuga.

The medical expert, who lamented the high unemployment rate among anatomists in Nigeria, said, “We talk about joblessness in this country. But the truth is that there are quite a number of people who have the capacity based on their training and are not given the opportunity to do anything.”

He added, “For instance, to curb insecurity in Nigeria, some people think that the answer to it is to employ more people into the workforce. That is very good. But the truth is you will need a component of science in it, and that is where a case of a forensic officer in the military and paramilitary settings is very important.”

According to him, the military and paramilitary can identify people based on the features “they see on them, and the best of people prepared for that kind of job are anatomists.”

“But as I am talking to you today, the police will not put out vacancies and say we need forensic scientists who have training in embryological sciences, particularly Anatomy,” said Ayannuga. “Those are areas we need to take care of. But at the last count in this society, the anatomists are best trained to do those kinds of jobs.