A group of 47 Nigerian medical students who escaped the war in Sudan in 2023 are now facing a bureaucratic impasse that threatens to derail their careers. Despite completing their training and earning degrees, they remain unable to register for the mandatory Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) qualifying examination due to documentation requirements that most could not meet because of their emergency evacuation.
The students, formerly enrolled at Sudan International University (SIU), were in their final year when violent conflict broke out in Sudan. As chaos engulfed Khartoum, the Nigerian government swiftly evacuated its citizens, many without exit visas or even their international passports.
“We fled with only the clothes on our backs. Our passports and documents were left behind in Sudan. There was no time,” said one of the affected students, who spoke in Abuja on Saturday. “Now, we’re being told we can’t sit for the MDCN exam without entry and exit visas. It’s devastating.”
After their evacuation, the students resumed and completed their medical training at the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital (UDUTH) in Sokoto. This was facilitated through an agreement between SIU and UDUTH, approved by the National Universities Commission (NUC), allowing them to continue their academic programme on Nigerian soil.
Najid Hassan, President of the Nigerian Students Association at SIU, confirmed that the students resumed studies at UDUTH in December 2023. “We completed our clinical rotations in surgery, medicine, gynaecology, and paediatrics under the supervision of Nigerian consultants. We took our final exams and graduated in October 2024 with SIU certificates,” he said.
However, when the students approached the MDCN to register for the 2025 qualifying examination, a major hurdle emerged. One of the key application requirements is submission of first entry and last exit visa pages from their passports—documents they no longer possess due to the emergency nature of their evacuation.
MDCN Registrar, Dr. Fatima Kyari, in a 2024 bulletin addressing returning students from conflict zones, reiterated the Council’s stance: while sympathetic to the plight of students affected by crises in Sudan and Ukraine, certain requirements remain compulsory unless clear academic reintegration through approved Nigerian institutions is demonstrated.
She noted that the academic collaboration between SIU and UDUTH, though valuable, did not equate to a transfer of accreditation or recognition of clinical training by MDCN standards. As a result, students who did not formally transfer to a Nigerian university but completed their education under a foreign institution’s name, even while physically in Nigeria, remain subject to the foreign-trained graduate process.
Section 9 of the Medical and Dental Practitioners Act empowers the Council to assess all foreign-trained medical and dental graduates. It mandates submission of passport documentation, including visa pages and immigration stamps, to verify overseas training.
For these 47 students, the clock is ticking. The MDCN examination is scheduled for June 2025, and unless a resolution is reached swiftly, their years of study may amount to nothing more than a bureaucratic dead end.
The Federal Ministry of Education has acknowledged the students’ plight. Rakiya Ilyasu, Director of University Education, urged the students to formally petition the Minister of Education and copy relevant departments to seek an exemption or special consideration.
The NUC, through its Deputy Executive Secretary Chris Maiyaki, also confirmed awareness of the situation and advised the students to pursue administrative resolution through the education ministry.
Meanwhile, efforts to get an official response from the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), which played a central role in the 2023 evacuation, yielded no result. Calls and messages to the Commission’s Chairperson, Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, went unanswered.
Officials at UDUTH also declined to comment, citing a lack of authority to speak on the issue. The Vice Chancellor of Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Prof. Bashir Garba, noted he was in transit and would respond in due time.
As uncertainty deepens, the affected students are appealing to the Federal Government and relevant institutions to intervene urgently. “We’ve done everything asked of us. We studied, we trained, we passed. We’re only asking for a chance to serve our country as doctors,” one student pleaded.
For now, the fate of 47 aspiring medical professionals hangs in the balance, caught between the fallout of a foreign war and the rigid policies of their homeland.
