Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment, has kicked against the bill seeking to mandate medical and dental practitioners to practice for five years in Nigeria before relocating abroad.
Ngige spoke to journalists after a Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting on Monday.
In April, Ganiyu Johnson, an All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmaker from Lagos, sponsored the bill seeking to amend the Medical and Dental Practitioners Act 2004, to address the brain drain in the health sector.
Speaking on the bill, Ngige described it as “unworkable” and “like killing a fly with a sledgehammer”.
He added that the proposed law did not have his support and urged the legislature to look for “other ways” to curb the brain drain.
“Nobody can say they (doctors) will not get a practising licence till after five years. It will run counter to the laws of the land that have established the progression in the practice of medicine,” the minister said.
“The Bill in National Assembly cannot stop anybody from getting a full licence. That bill is a private members’ bill.
“In the National Assembly, they attend to private members’ bills and executive bills. Executive bills emanate from the government into the National Assembly with the stamp of the executive.
“It is either sent by the Attorney General of the Federation or by the President but usually from the Attorney General of the Federation. So, it’s not an executive bill, it’s a private members bill.
“That bill is moved by the man from Lagos. So, members of his constituency can tell him this is worrying us. Can’t we check these doctors this way by you going to speak than put up a document?
“That document is as far as I am concerned, not workable. Ab initio, I don’t support it and I will never support it. Like I said before, it is like killing a fly with a sledgehammer.
“They should think of other ways if they are trying to check brain drain, there should be other ways.
