The umbrella body of all medical doctors in the country, Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), with over 44,000 practicings/registered members and other affiliates, including the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN), has threatened to join the ongoing resident doctors’ strike, now in its 29th day.
Resident doctors under the aegis of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), with over 16,000 members, had on August 2, 2021, started a nationwide industrial action to demand implementation of agreements reached with the Federal Government on payment of owed salaries and arrears, hazard allowance, residency programme, payment of life insurance benefits to families of members that died of COVID-19 among others.
But President of NMA, Prof. Innocent Ujah, after the association’s National Executive Council meeting in Benin City, Edo State, yesterday, told journalists in the event that the FG fails to implement the agreements after the expiration of its 21-day notice, NMA will be forced to declare a nationwide strike and join the resident doctors.
Ujah in a statement jointly signed by the Secretary-General, NMA, Dr. Philips Uche Ekpe, said the various industrial disputes involving the different affiliates of the association were exhaustively reviewed at the meeting and the association would not allow any doctor to be victimised for participating in the strike instituted by NARD.
This is coming as the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Saturday night confirmed additional 53 deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic, raising the nation’s total fatality from the disease to 2,361. The new fatality figure, confirmation of the biting consequences of the third wave of the pandemic, ranks the highest daily fatality figure in more than a year.
Ujah said after due consideration, the National Executive Committee (NEC) put the Federal Government on the 21-day notice to fully resolve all the issues contained in the various agreements signed with affiliate members of the NMA including MDCAN, Medical and Dental Specialist Association in Basic Medical Sciences (MEDSABAMS) and NARD.
The statement read: “The NMA fully supports all her affiliates in their efforts to improve healthcare delivery in Nigeria and the welfare of her members. NEC affirms that no doctor shall be victimised for participating, or not participating in the strike by NARD. If the FG fails to implement the agreements after the expiration of the 21-day notice, NMA shall summon an Emergency Delegate Meeting to review the progress made on the implementation of the agreements.”
Reacting to the NMA’s position, yesterday, President, NARD, Dr. Uyilawa Okhuaihesuyi, said: “We are not surprised that the NMA is on our side now and may join the strike. NMA is our parent body and no father or mother will allow his or her children to be maltreated and dehumanised the way the Federal Government is treating us.
“They have started implementing the ‘no work no pay policy even before the judgment of the National Industrial Court scheduled for September 15. The court was supposed to meet. They no longer pay us and that has made us angrier. We will wait. We will continue our strike.”
However, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, has said it is illegal for doctors to expect to be paid when they aren’t at their duty posts.
Speaking at the weekend when Sam Jaja, chairman of the Forum of Health Institutions in Nigeria (FCHIN), paid him a visit in Abuja, Ngige said he will not support the demand of the doctors because it is against the law.
“The doctors want Section 43 of the Trade Dispute Act not to apply to them, that we should insert in a government agreement that they should be paid for the period they are not at work. I am being careful about this,” the minister said.
“This is the law and I will not lend myself to illegality, to state in the agreement that a group of Nigerians is above the law. But as a matter of fact, a clause in that agreement states clearly that nobody should be punished for participating or not participating in the strike.
“So what else do they want? They want me to put in writing that they are above the law. That ‘no work, no pay’ policy should not apply to them, that the ‘no work, no pay’ is no more part of our law, despite the fact that I swore to uphold the Constitution?”
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