‎BY AHMED AKANBI

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‎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.

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‎The Senate also moved to amend the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau Act to guarantee institutional independence and operational autonomy.

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‎Both bills were sponsored by Senate Leader, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, and taken at plenary on Tuesday in Abuja.

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‎Leading the debate, Bamidele said the Medical College amendment will expand its mandate beyond professional examinations to running academic programmes.

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‎He said the college will be empowered to award Ph.Ds to bridge specialist training, clinical research and advanced academics.

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‎”This will create a statutory basis for the College to contribute more directly to research capacity and clinical scholarship,” he said.

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‎He added that the college Senate will develop doctoral programmes under National Universities Commission accreditation.

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‎On NSIB, Bamidele said the amendment will strengthen accident investigation and remove ministerial approval bottlenecks to ensure credibility.

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‎Deputy Minority Leader, Senator Olalere Oyewunmi, seconded the NSIB bill, while Chief Whip, Senator Mohammed Monguno, seconded the Medical College bill.

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‎The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, passed both for second reading and referred them to Committees on Tertiary Institutions and Aviation for further legislative work.