2015: NMA seeks psychiatric test for politicians

The Nigerian Medical Association has recommended that each of the politicians seeking political offices in the 2015 elections should be made to undergo a psychiatric test to determine their mental state.

The NMA, in a communique at the end of the National Executive Council meeting in Jos, said that all psychiatric doctors should register with the Independent National Electoral Commission to supervise such test.

The communique also clarified issues on the strike embarked upon by some doctors, saying that medical doctors were not on strike, but would not succumb to blackmail.

The NMA National President, Dr. Kayode Obembe, who read the communique on Sunday, said that such a test had become necessary because of the manner some political office holders had been conducting themselves, adding that medical doctors had also been advised to register to participate in the political process at all levels.

They were also asked to register as polling officers to assist INEC to conduct a free and fair election.

The communique said, “As the events that will culminate in the 2015 general elections in Nigeria start in different parts of the country, apprehension appears to be building up among the citizenry for so many reasons, ranging from the insecurity challenge being unleashed on the nation by the terrorist sect, Boko Haram, the face-off between the executive and legislative arms of government, the threat of impeachment being peddled by a sizeable section of the National Assembly against the President, to the economic crisis that has necessitated desperate measures from the government.

“The NMA wishes to join other Nigerians at home and abroad as well as the international community, to express the need for politicians in the country to tread with caution so as not to cause tension in a system that is already heated to a near-boiling point.

“We also urge the Federal Government to scale up security apparatus to checkmate the emerging security challenges in the country.”

The association also urged Nigerians of voting age to participate fully in the voting process and elect their leaders come 2015.