Many medical doctors in Nigeria have applied for job positions with the Saudi Arabia ministry of health as the country organised recruitment exercise for eligible candidates in Lagos.
According to TheCable the recruitment was organised by the ministry in conjunction with Successlink Consult in Ikeja, at the weekend.
The job offer was for consultants and specialists in all medical fields, excluding psychiatrists.
Among those present for the interview were medical consultants and doctors in various areas of specialisation.
It was gathered that each applicant paid N10, 000 as the application fee after which medical certificates, means of identification, and other documents were tendered at the point of documentation.
After payment, the medical doctors were screened before a panel of Saudi Arabian personnel.
Speaking in an interview, one of the applicants who specialises in hematology — a branch of medicine concerned with the study of blood, the blood-forming organs, and blood diseases — described the screening as the “shortest interview of my life”.
“I showed them my original documents before going in and also presented the duplicates which they took to the interviewers. After making the payment, I was taken inside for the interview. The interview lasted like one minute, I think it’s the shortest interview of my life,” he said.
“I have been hearing about such recruitments for a while but I have never applied. This is my first time,” he said.
It was not the first time Saudi Arabia would woo Nigerian medical doctors with job offers.
In March 2019, a similar exercise was held at a popular hotel in Lagos while another took place in Abuja.
The latest recruitment is the fallout of the ongoing strike by the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD).
The doctors had commenced the strike on August 1 over “irregular payment of salaries”, among other issues.
