Ogun Nursing Student Commits Suicide As Govt. Shuts Down School
A 300-level student of a private tertiary institution in Ogun State, simply identified as Ajoke has reportedly committed suicide.
The deceased, a student of Basic Medical Science at Havarde College of Science, Business and Management Studies, Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, on Monday evening, drank a poisonous substance, suspected to be a sniper.
The lifeless body of the deceased, who was said to be pregnant was discovered in her hostel room located off campus.
Unconfirmed reports revealed that the deceased who had been battling with depression must have committed suicide after discovering that she was pregnant.
A colleague of the deceased who spoke to our correspondent said, the deceased’s condition was worsened after finding out that the school had failed to meet up with the accreditation requirements of the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria and could not be accredited for nursing, despite spending three years studying the course.
“For more than four months now, she (deceased) had been depressed because of the fact that the course she was studying was not accredited.
“She used to think and complain because she claimed her parents used all the money they had to send her to the school.
“Things now got worse when she discovered she was pregnant and she could not even have a certificate for the course she had done for years”, the source said.
Meanwhile, the Ogun State Government on Tuesday shut down the Nursing Department of the college for allegedly offering a degree programme in Nursing Sciences for six years without accreditation from the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN).
The department was shut down during an enforcement exercise carried out by officials of the State Ministry of Health and members of the State Nursing and Midwifery Committee (SNMC).
Speaking during the enforcement exercise, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Dr. Kayode Oladehinde, stated that such unauthorised programmes contributed to quackery in the profession which posed a threat to the health of the populace, maintaining that the Nursing Department of the institution would remain closed until fully accredited.
Oladehinde, represented by the Acting Director of Nursing Services, Mrs Serifat Aminu, described a degree in Nursing obtained from Harvard College and similar institutions without NMCN accreditation as worthless, explaining that graduates from such schools would be denied a license to practice in Nigeria and other parts of the world.
“We have discovered that many institutions, including Harvard College, offer nursing degrees to unsuspecting students. Our mission is to clamp down on such institutions because they end up producing quacks in the Nursing profession. This is dangerous for society. Unfortunately, most students are unaware that their time is being wasted”, he said.
He warned parents and candidates desiring to pursue nursing or related programmes to be wary of institutions making false claims by checking the NMCN website for an updated list of accredited institutions, assuring that the government would continue to checkmate quackery in the nursing profession.
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