FNA News – Breaking
24 November 2025
NMCN faces fresh legal threat as calls for accountability over 9% RPHN pass rate intensify
The Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN) is facing the prospect of a new class-action lawsuit after software engineer and Educare CEO Alex Onyia issued a direct ultimatum to the regulator over the November 2025 Public Health Nursing (RPHN) examination
Software engineer and Chief Executive Officer of Educare, Mr Alex Onyia, has given the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN) an ultimatum: release individual mark-sheets or order a complete rewrite of the November 2025 Public Health Nursing (RPHN) examination, or face a class-action lawsuit led by affected candidates.
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In a statement issued on X late Sunday, Mr Onyia wrote:
“If the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN) doesn’t take action quickly by letting the students see their mark-sheet or the exam rewritten, then we can institute a class action lawsuit against them.
"But before I can do this, the affected students must firmly agree within themselves to be all in and never back out at any point just like the case of UNILAG and OAU. The process is not cheap and usually brings me lots of hatred from these institutions. So backing out will make me lose a lot which can be demotivating. The only gain I get is seeing these students succeed and very happy.”
The threat marks a dramatic escalation in the crisis that erupted after only 179 out of approximately 2,000 candidates (9%) passed the November RPHN professional examination, with several leading universities recording pass rates of 0–3%. Many of the unsuccessful candidates were already resitting following an almost identical mass failure in May 2025.
Parents, lecturers and students have flooded social media with despairing testimonies. One parent wrote: “My daughter has been crying since yesterday. She finished with distinction in her degree, passed RN and RM flawlessly, yet RPHN has finished her dreams twice because of system failure.” A senior lecturer at one of the affected institutions described the result as “statistically impossible without a catastrophic platform error,” while another candidate lamented: “We watched the timer run while questions refused to load. How is that our fault?”
This is not the first time the NMCN has faced legal action. In May 2024, a coalition of prominent Nigerian nurses in the diaspora, led by the Nursing Group Administrators (NGA) and other influential voices, dragged the council to the Federal High Court over revised certificate-verification guidelines widely believed to be an attempt to curb the “Japa” exodus of health workers. The case generated intense national debate before the council eventually suspended the circular.
Mr Onyia has a proven track record of pursuing institutional accountability. In October 2025, he successfully secured court injunctions halting fresh admissions at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) and Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) over alleged irregularities and technical glitches in their Post-UTME screening, forcing both institutions to conduct audits.
As of Monday morning, the NMCN has made no public statement addressing either the technical failures or Mr Onyia’s legal threat.
Fellow Nurses Africa is in direct contact with affected candidates and will provide updates as the situation develops.
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Fellow Nurses Africa is the independent voice of African nursing, we educate, inform and support nurses across Africa
