The message from the Nigerian Medical Council could not have been more cruel to student Moses Damilola Fehintola.
After being trapped by the war in Ukraine earlier this year, it was a relief when he escaped and was able to continue his medical studies online.
But one day a WhatsApp message in capital letters rang on his cell phone, saying that his distance learning course wasn’t recognised.
The language was cold and formal.
“We would like to inform the general public that medical and dental graduation certificates issued by medical schools from Ukraine from 2022 onwards will not be recognized by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria until normal academic activities resume.”
Mr. Fehintola gasped as his vision blurred for a moment. “Jesus,” he murmured desperately.
“What’s happening?” his mother asked, looking over as they drove to a local market in Oyo State. Mr. Fehintola mumbled a few words and tried to play it down.
“The news hit me really hard… So many thoughts went through my head,” he recalls. “I was actually looking forward to graduating in Ukraine no matter what.”
He was a sixth and final year student at Ukraine’s Sumy State University and was months away from graduating when the city was besieged by invading Russian troops.
The 22-year-old was trapped for several weeks before returning home – he was one of more than 1,000 Nigerians, mostly students, returning from Ukraine.
Despite the raging fighting, Sumy State University and other Ukrainian institutions managed to continue offering online courses, so Mr. Fehintola believed he could still pursue his dream of becoming a doctor.
But his plans are now in shambles.
“I am in Nigeria now trying to do clinical practice because I want to meet the requirements to practice medicine in Nigeria,” Mr Fehintola told the BBC.
“First I wrote to my own state health department asking to be admitted to a hospital, but when I got there the medical director there said, ‘Oh, you’re from Ukraine, wasn’t it the place where the certificates have been canceled? from MDCN?”‘
“I was so shocked – I just had to say, ‘Yes’ because it’s the truth. From then on there was this look and I know there would be a stigma – this attitude: ‘This guy is from Ukraine, his certificate is invalid.'”
MDCN has not responded to the BBC’s request for comment.
Describing the policy as discriminatory, Mr Fehintola said he thought about the announcement and chose to be motivated rather than see it as a disadvantage.
“I will say this to Nigeria: If Nigeria wants this, then so be it. I will look for other countries to practice and that will be Nigeria’s loss.”
Grace Ladi Musa, who had been studying medicine at Kiev Medical University for five years when the war broke out, agrees.
“It’s just not fair,” she says.
The 23-year-old told the BBC her life plans had been turned upside down – first by the war, then by the revelation that her studies were being invalidated.
“I hope the Nigerian Ministry of Education would change their minds.”
Another medical student has even stronger words for the Nigerian authorities.
“Our own country rejects us,” said Emmanuella Oiza, a 17-year-old sophomore of medical school at Sumy State University.
“People try to educate themselves better to go back home and make the country better, but you send them away.”
Mobilizing is the only solution, says 24-year-old vet student Samuel Otunla.
He plans to rally Nigerian returnee students and ask the government to reverse the decision, accusing it of failing to manage education to the extent that studying abroad is the only option for those who can afford it.
The Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria has advised students currently studying medicine or dentistry in Ukrainian medical schools to seek transfer to accredited institutions in other countries.
It states that online medical education conducted in all parts of the world does not conform to accepted standards and does not recognize medical degree certificates issued at the end of an online medical education.
“We want to serve our fatherland,” says Mr. Fehintola. “We want to help save lives in our own community, that’s what led us to become doctors in the first place.
He also pays tribute to Ukraine.
“A country that can move forward in a time of war to ensure its students still get the necessary qualifications to study is truly the hero of this situation. Trying to destroy their testimony is, in my opinion, a blow to the Ukrainian government. “
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