The Nigerian Medical Association has explained why the ongoing strike action embarked upon by the National Association of Resident Doctors may not end soon.
NMA President, Prof. Mike Ogirima, said in an exclusive chat with our correspondent that because of the antecedents of the Federal Government regarding the handling of the grouses of the doctors, the practitioners of the medical profession could no longer trust the government to faithfully implement any agreement reached with them.
Ogirima described the failure of the government to honour past agreements with the doctors as a disservice to the health sector and the country at large.
how will you trust a government that is not used to implementing agreements?
Last Thursday, NARD refused to call off its strike even after holding a 13-hour meeting with representatives of the Federal Government, including the Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige; the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole; and the Minister of State for Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire.
Some of the demands of the resident doctors include the payment of the salary arrears of its members in Federal and state health institutions and the upgrade of those who have met the requisite criteria for promotion.
The NMA president, however, said that the issues on ground, which led to the strike, were mainly the six-point demands that the resident doctors had been clamouring for in the past seven years.
“The doctors have gone on several strikes; they have written a lot of Memoranda that they agreed to and government has refused to honour those agreements. So, this time around, we still have the same issues with added problems. There is salary shortfalls now added. Some salaries were not paid in December 2015, some were not paid in 2016; this current year, too, some medical centres have not been paid, including last month’s full salaries,” he said.
Ogirima berated the government’s alleged habit of treating matters affecting the doctors with levity, stressing that this time around the NMA would ensure the implementation of whatever agreement reached between NARD and the FG.
“So, how will you trust a government that is not used to implementing agreements ? That is the problem; that is why they went on strike, even with me as the NMA president witnessing the agreement, so that is the problem. A 21-day ultimatum was given to the Federal Government, it expired; another 14-day notice of strike was given after the expiration of the ultimatum, according to the Trade Dispute Act. So, the doctors complied.
“My only grouse with them (doctors) is that they have asked me to come and witness an agreement which I am following up. They should have given me the timeline embedded in the agreement. That is the only point of disagreement, otherwise they have their rights to go on strike. But at the moment, the Medical Association is engaging the government to make sure that those agreements are followed to the letter,” he said.
Speaking in the same vein, the President of the Association of Academic and Clinical Physiotherapists, Prof. Rufus Adedoyin, bemoaned the frequent strike action embarked upon by the doctors due to inadequate remuneration. “We know that at this period, the salaries of doctors and their entitlements are not well paid, coupled with the recent shortfalls of salaries of doctors in teaching hospitals and the agreement that the Federal Government had had with the resident doctors has not been implemented for a long time now,” Adedoyin said.
He, however, noted that his only disagreement with the resident doctors over their current action was their failure to give the government enough time for negotiation before downing tools, especially since it was still being confronted with similar industrial issues such as that of the Academic Staff Union of Universities.
”Because of the integrity of the health issues, I will implore the resident doctors to give the government more time to solve the issues,” he pleaded.
NARD President at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospitl, Ikeja, Dr. Adeola Badmus, said that members of the association in the hospital were in total support of the strike.
Badmus added that they would continue to fully comply with the directive of the association to down tools until its national leadership gave contrary instructions.
”We have complained of salaries of our members in some teaching hospitals that are not paid. Then, we have shortfalls of salary. The government is always in the habit of complaining of lack of funds, yet they are getting their own salaries. We have fought them to effect the payment, but up till now, nothing has been done,” he said.
He also complained about the inability of the government to honour the agreement on the enrolment of resident doctors, who he said should not be treated by the government the same way it had always done to its contract staff.
“We are ensuring that there is full compliance with the directive; since it is a national directive, we have to abide by the rules. Though there is a meeting of NARD with the Federal government, hopefully we should be able to come out with something tangible that can make us to call off the strike, but calling off the strike is dependent on the national body,” Badmus said.
NARD President at the National Orthopedic Hospital, Igbobi, Lagos, Dr. Adewunmi Ige, described the strike as an avoidable action that should have been better handled.
Ige added that interventions should have come earlier because the incidental issues to the strike had been lingering on for a long time and government had consistently failed to fulfil promises made.
He noted that after NARD gave an ultimatum for the strike, the FG did not deem it fit to call the doctors for negotiation until four days to its expiration, adding that the government was in the habit of treating issues with levity.
”The first meeting we were invited for was like four days to the strike, after a 21-day ultimatum was given to the Federal government. We are having a meeting and we hope the issue gets resolved, the problem with our government is implementation. We do not trust the government with making promises because it will be one of those promises they have made to us in the past. So, we need more of a commitment on something on the part of the government,”
he said.
NARD President at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Oyo State, Olusegun Olaopa, stated that in July, NARD issued a warning to the government that it would embark on an indefinite strike if its demands were not met and since nothing had been done, the resident doctors were justified to down tools.
“Neither the Federal nor state governments has shown commitment to the resolution of issues at stake nor honoured previous agreements. Consequent upon this, the association resolved to proceed on a total indefinite industrial action until all these issues are permanently resolved,”
he said.
