FG begs doctors over 21-day strike notice

On Sunday, the Federal Government expressed concern about the 21-day strike notice issued by the Nigerian Medical Association over the alleged failure of government to meet the demands of the striking resident doctors.

The Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, while responding to an inquiry by one of our correspondents on the threat by the NMA, said doctors should stop embarking on strikes at dangerous times and appealed to the resident doctors to call off their strike.

Ehanire said these as the Federal Government and the NMA disagreed on the 21-day ultimatum issued by the umbrella body of medical doctors in the country.

The NMA, in a statement on Saturday after its National Executive Council meeting in Benin, Edo State, said its affiliates, including the Medical and Dental Consultants of Nigeria, the Medical and Dental Doctors in Academics and the National Association of Resident Doctors, had resolved to commence a nationwide strike after the ultimatum.

In its statement on Saturday, the umbrella body of medical doctors noted that the Federal Government had not met the demands of resident doctors, who began a strike on August 2.

Before embarking on the strike, NARD had accused the government of failing to enrol its members on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System and not paying some of its members on residency training.

Efforts by the NMA to resolve the disagreements between NARD and the government have so far failed. Also, both sides disagreed on the ruling of the industrial court, which ordered the doctors to call off the strike.

At its meeting in Benin, the NMA expressed anger about the no-work-no-pay order of the government against the resident doctors.

In an interview with journalists on Sunday, the health minister said doctors should not be seen to be going on strikes at a time when the citizens were facing dangerous threats to lives.

One of our correspondents had asked him if there were plans by the health ministry to invite the NMA to forestall the looming total strike by all affiliates of the association.

Amid rising COVID-19 cases, which hit 189,715 on Saturday with 2,298 deaths, and the upsurge in cholera cases in the country, Ehanire stated in a text exchange with our correspondent, “The Ministry of Health isn’t the employer of the doctors. The Federal Government of Nigeria is and it pays doctors by a central Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System.

“The Federal Ministry of Health and the Federal Ministry of Labour engaged the Nigerian Medical Association to mediate in the NARD talks.

“Doctors shouldn’t choose a time the citizens face such dangerous threats to lives to go on strike. I appeal to doctors again to resume duty while talks go on.”

But the National President of NARD, Uyilawa Okhuaihesuyi has said despite the strike notice issued by the doctors, the Federal Government had yet to reach out to them.

Okhuaihesuyi told one of our correspondents that health workers usually resorted to strike as a result of the government’s failure to meet their demands.

He stated “As of now, the government has not reached out to us since the ultimatum was given by the NMA. The government pushed us into taking this decision. It is not our fault.

“Their failure to meet our demands pushed us into taking this decision. Even at that, no demand has been met.”