Fifty-three new nurses are officially part of Nigeria’s health workforce after Trinity University in Yaba, Lagos, held its 3rd induction and oath-taking ceremony for Bachelor of Nursing Science (B.N.Sc.) graduates. The event took place at the university’s Celebration Arena and welcomed the “Invicta Set,” the Class of 2026.
Academic leaders, health sector officials, regulators, parents, and clinical preceptors were all present to mark the graduates’ step into professional practice.
Why induction matters
For many people, graduation is the finish line. In nursing, it is only half of it. A graduate nurse in Nigeria has to be inducted before their name goes into the Register of the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN), and that entry is what gives them formal recognition to practice.
The oath was administered on behalf of the NMCN Registrar and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Ndagi Alhassan, who was represented at the ceremony by Prince Olaniyi Filade, Head of the Council’s ICT Unit. With it, all 53 graduates were admitted into the register as Registered Nurses (RN).
The Registrar’s message was that induction is mandatory, and that being on the register is what allows a nurse to be recognized to practice anywhere in the world. He urged the new nurses to follow the full nursing process of assessment, diagnosis, care planning, implementation, and evaluation, and to take personal responsibility for their clinical decisions. He also reminded them to be careful on social media, to stay away from unethical or charlatan practices, and to get involved in the Nursing Now Nigeria campaign and the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM).
Ethics and law, side by side
The keynote speaker was Prof. Abolore Olayinka Onasoga, Head of the Department of Nursing Sciences at the University of Ilorin. She described nursing as a sacred trust, a lifelong duty to protect life, preserve dignity, ease suffering, and promote health.
Her point to the graduates was that patients meet nurses at their most vulnerable, so character, competence, and sound judgment matter as much as technical skill. She explained that safe practice rests on ethical conduct, legal responsibility, and professional accountability, and that ethics and law work together. Ethics guides moral decisions, while the law sets out obligations that can be enforced.
She also encouraged the inductees to anchor their practice in eight principles:
Autonomy
Beneficence
Non-Maleficence
Justice
Human Dignity
Fidelity
Veracity
Confidentiality
On veracity, she warned nurses against giving false hope to terminally ill patients because of personal or religious feelings. Her advice was to offer evidence-based care with honesty and compassionate support.
Words from the school
The Vice Chancellor, Prof. Clement Kolawole, praised the graduates and repeated the university’s goal of producing globally competitive healthcare professionals. He called the induction a covenant to serve humanity with compassion and to uphold the dignity of life.
The Acting Dean of the Faculty of Nursing Sciences, Olaide Animashaun, reminded the class that their training was built around caring for human lives. “Behind every diagnosis is a person,” she said, and she encouraged them to lead and innovate in clinical practice, research, administration, and public health.
A class that refused to quit
Speaking for the graduating set, valedictorian Esther Oluwajoba Lasisi thanked the university leadership, lecturers, parents, and preceptors. She explained that the name Invicta means “unconquered,” and said it reflects how the class pushed through demanding lectures, clinical postings, and examinations. Their journey, she said, took them from students with dreams and uncertainties to nurses with knowledge, purpose, and courage.
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