NMA Crisis: Delegates Suspend President Bala Audu, Install Caretaker Ahead of Kano AGM

The Nigerian Medical Association is in open crisis. Emergency delegates meeting in Abuja on Wednesday voted to suspend National President Prof. Bala Audu, install a caretaker committee, and reverse the disqualification of six candidates from the association’s upcoming elections — all in one sitting.

The crisis was triggered by Audu’s National Officers Committee unilaterally disqualifying the six candidates ahead of the NMA Annual General Meeting scheduled for Kano from April 27 to May 3. Delegates from 23 states and the FCT — 63 in total — rejected the disqualifications as unconstitutional, reinstated the affected candidates, and constituted a caretaker committee led by former Secretary-General Dr Ekpe Phillips to oversee the association pending the elections.

“The excuse of incomplete documentation is strange to our processes. These candidates were duly nominated and screened. What happened was a clear violation of the NMA constitution,” a delegate said.

NMA-FCT Chairman Dr Emeka Ayogu backed the suspension, calling the Audu leadership’s conduct “impunity and arrogance.” Former Deputy Secretary-General Dr Umezurike Ikechukwu described the situation as unlike anything in the NMA’s history of stable transitions.

Audu’s side hit back immediately. The Audu-led National Officers Committee rejected the suspension as unconstitutional on Friday, dismissing the emergency delegates meeting itself as illegitimate. The association now effectively has two competing leaderships — with the AGM only days away.

What happens in Kano next week will determine whether this blows over or becomes a prolonged split. Either way, Nigeria’s largest doctors’ association going into its AGM with a suspended president and a caretaker committee in place is not a good sign.

Sources: Vanguard, Channels TV, Gazette NG