By Olugbenga Salami
A bill to empower the National Postgraduate Medical College to award Ph.D degrees in clinical medicine, dentistry and related fields has passed second reading in the Senate.
The Senate also moved to amend the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau Act to guarantee institutional independence and operational autonomy.
Both bills were sponsored by Senate Leader, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele and taken at plenary on Tuesday in Abuja.
Leading debate, Bamidele said the Medical College amendment will expand its mandate beyond professional examinations to running academic programmes.
He said the college will be empowered to award Ph.Ds to bridge specialist training, clinical research and advanced academics.
“This will create a statutory basis for the College to contribute more directly to research capacity and clinical scholarship,” he said.
He added that the college Senate will develop doctoral programmes under National Universities Commission accreditation.
On NSIB, Bamidele said the amendment will strengthen accident investigation and remove ministerial approval bottlenecks to ensure credibility.
Deputy Minority Leader Senator Olalere Oyewunmi seconded the NSIB bill, while Chief Whip Senator Mohammed Monguno seconded the Medical College bill.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio passed both for second reading and referred them to Committees on Tertiary Institutions and Aviation for further work.
