The Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) has strongly denied allegations made by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) that Nigerian doctors and other medical professionals accept bribes from patients before treatment. MDCAN claims that the NBS report is an attempt to tarnish the image of Nigerian doctors.
The controversial report, titled “Corruption in Nigeria: Patterns and Trends Third Survey on Corruption as Experienced by the Population,” was presented by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s Data, Analytics, and Statistics Section. It indicated that 42% of health workers received bribes to expedite procedures and 15% took bribes to finalize procedures.
In a press statement signed by MDCAN President Prof. Mohammed Aminu Mohammed, the association dismissed these allegations as false and baseless. Prof. Mohammed emphasized that Nigerian doctors, despite being among the least paid in the world, are dedicated and hardworking and would not resort to bribery.
MDCAN demanded a total retraction of the report and access to the methodology and geographical areas covered by the NBS survey. The association argued that doctors are a minority in health institutions, usually constituting only 20-30% of the workforce, making it unlikely for them to be the primary culprits of bribery as suggested by the report.
Prof. Mohammed acknowledged that there may be isolated cases of corruption but stressed that it is unfair to label all Nigerian doctors as corrupt. MDCAN called for the identification and punishment of any health or non-health workers involved in bribery, rather than generalizing the issue.
The association also highlighted that different categories of health workers
