UGONSA WRITES NNPC, SEPLAT ON EXCLUSION OF UNDERGRADUATE NURSES FROM THEIR SCHOLARSHIP SCHEME

                                                                                                                                                                           

                                                                                                                             Date: 28th April, 2025

Seplat Energy PLC,

Head Office,

16A Temple Road, Ikoyi,

Lagos State,

Nigeria.

+234 1277 0400

info@seplatenergy.com

EXCLUSION OF UNDERGRADUATE NURSING STUDENTS FROM THE NNPC/SEPLAT JV NATIONAL UNDERGRADUATE SCHOLARSHIP SCHEME

The National Executive Council (NEC) of the University Graduates of Nursing Science Association (UGONSA), a professional association of all Nigerian Nurses with a minimum university qualification of first degree in Nursing Science (B.Sc. Nursing/B.N.Sc.) writes to express her displeasure over the exclusion of undergraduate students of Nursing Science from the list of eligible applicants of the 2025 NNPC/SEPLAT Joint Venture National Undergraduate Scholarship programme.

1. We refer to your advert titled: NNPC/SEPLAT JV NATIONAL UNDERGRADUATE SCHOLARSHIP which commenced on April 7, 2025 to April 21, 2025.

2. Our association wishes to observe that the NNPC as a corporate entity is a national patrimony for all Nigerians, established for sustainable national development, and, “for the welfare of Nigerian citizens”.

3. That, the SEPLAT’s educational scholarship scheme on the other hand, as a corporate social investment programme designed to promote educational and human capital development, is ordinarily expected to be accessible to undergraduates from all disciplines and professions to apply in other to create a sense of inclusion, and build their human resource.

4. Over the years, members of the nursing profession have observed with dismay the constant exclusion of Nursing as a discipline from the list of eligible Courses to apply for the scholarship. While we acknowledged the inclusion of Medicine in the list, we wish to bring to your esteemed notice that undergraduates from nursing discipline are often skeptical as to whether Nursing is assumed to be part of Medicine in the listed Courses.

5. Our association wishes to therefore states succinctly that, though Medicine and Nursing (and indeed other disciplines in the healthcare sector) could be described as two sides of the same coin, professional autonomies, government policies and societal perceptions have set the two disciplines far apart in terms of expectations and benefits. On that premise therefore, while medical students would view this advert as an inclusive approach, undergraduate nursing students on the other hand would, rightly so, view the advert as an injustice to them and to the nursing profession.

6. With the wave of brain drain that has impacted the Nigerian healthcare sector in the past few years affecting mostly Nurses and Doctors which has widened the gap between nurse-to-patient ratio to about 2:20 or more in our hospitals for nurses, compare to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommendation of 1:4 in medical-surgical units, poor pay-cheque for nurses, and the sacrifices and selfless services rendered by Nigerian nurses which often led to some putting their lives on the line thereby paying the supreme prize in the line of duty, adverts such as this which excludes Nursing from benefiting from this social investment programmes conveys a sense of ingratitude and lack of appreciation from the Nigerian state and its institutions to members of the nursing profession.

PRAYERS

It is in the light of above that our association demands that:

1. You release an advert as adjunct to the present advertisement to include undergraduate students from Nursing discipline as a “stand-alone” to convey a sense of inclusivity to the nursing community.

2. You enlist undergraduates from nursing profession in all your future adverts to foster a sense of inclusivity that will encourage nursing students to participate in the scheme.

3. You also specify undergraduate students from other health disciples like Pharmacy, Medical Laboratory Science, and Physiotherapy etc in the advert.

Please, for correspondence, you can reach our association on our official e-mail address gnan2ugonsa@gmail.com or, info@ugonsa.org

Please, accept the assurances of our association’s highest regards.

                                                                         Signed:

Nurse Ojo Opeyemi                                                                                      Nurse Philip O. Eteng

National President                                                                                          National Secretary