Sudan Conflict: 47 Nigerian Medical Students Decry Failure to Get MDCN Registration 

Wale Igbintade with Agency Report 

Forty seven Nigerian medical students evacuated from war-torn Sudan in May 2023 now face an uncertain future as they struggle to meet critical registration requirements for the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) exams.

The students who fled Sudan without exit visas during the conflict, are now racing against time to sit for the June 2025 MDCN assessment, a mandatory step for medical graduates trained abroad to practice in Nigeria.

According to a report by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the affected students were in their final year at Sudan International University (SIU) when the federal government intervened to evacuate them. 

With the approval of the National Universities Commission (NUC), they completed their academic programme at Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital (UDUTH) in Sokoto.

One of the students told NAN: “We successfully completed our studies, graduated in 2024, and received certificates from SIU. However, when we approached MDCN for registration, we were told we must provide a first entry visa and a last exit visa documents. None of us has because our passports remained in Sudan during the emergency evacuation.”

The student added: “We respectfully request permission to sit for the June 2025 exams. Our entire future is at stake.”

President of the Nigerian Students Association at SIU, Najid Hassan,  confirmed that the students resumed at UDUTH in December 2023 under a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between SIU and UDUTH. After one year of clinical rotations, lectures, and assessments at UDUTH, they graduated in October 2024.

However, their efforts to register with MDCN have been frustrated.

Hassan explained: “We thought the process would be smooth given the exceptional circumstances, but we are now caught in a bureaucratic trap over missing visas.”

MDCN, established under the Medical and Dental Practitioners Act, requires foreign-trained medical graduates to present portions of their international passports showing visa and arrival/departure stamps as part of the registration process.

In a 2024 publication, MDCN Registrar Dr. Fatima Kyari reaffirmed this requirement but acknowledged the plight of students affected by conflicts in Sudan and Ukraine, offering remediation pathways. 

These include returning to their foreign universities, transferring to accredited Nigerian universities with NUC approval, or integrating into Nigerian universities through NUC guidelines.

Kyari clarified that while the MoU between SIU and UDUTH was an academic collaboration, it did not qualify the students for MDCN registration under the standard process. Only students who transferred properly and graduated from MDCN-approved Nigerian universities have been fully registered.

The Federal Ministry of Education, through the Director of University Education, Hajiya Rakiya Ilyasu,  advised the affected students to write formally to the Minister of Education, copying the Director of Education Support Services, to seek resolution.

NUC Deputy Executive Secretary, Chris Maiyaki, also acknowledged the situation and urged students to contact the Ministry of Education.

Efforts by NAN to reach Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Chair of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), and officials at Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto for comments were unsuccessful.

As the June 2025 exams draw near, the students are left in limbo, pleading for urgent intervention to save their medical careers.