The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, has threatened striking doctors that the Federal Government may stop paying their salaries if they do not resume to work. During an interview, Ngige said the Federal Government is empowered by labour laws to stop paying salaries of the striking workers. He also said the Federal Government has an option of employing local doctors. Members of the National Association of Resident Doctors began “a total and indefinite strike” on Thursday.
The doctors are demanding payment of salaries of house officers and an upward review of their N5, 000 hazard allowances among others. The minister, however, said medical council and Office of the Accountant General have been told “what to do” to ensure that the doctors suspend their industrial action. The Minister faulted the rejection of the Memorandum of Action signed by the leadership of the association with the Federal Government. Meanwhile, The Nigerian Medical Association has lambasted the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, for saying developed nations like the United States and the United Kingdom don’t pay resident doctors.
Ngige, who is also a medical doctor, had berated the National Association of Resident Doctors for embarking on a nationwide strike, claiming that developed countries don’t pay resident doctors. He had also stated that resident doctors in foreign countries actually pay the hospitals where they work while in Nigeria the reverse is the case. Reacting in a statement by its National President, of the National Association of Resident Doctors, Dr Uyilawa Okhuaihesuyi and his NMA counterparts Prof. Innocent Ujah; its Secretary-General, Dr Phillips Ekpe, they knocked Ngige for his approach towards ending the strike. The NMA said in the US and other developed countries, resident doctors work as they are being trained and they are paid by their employers. The striking resident doctors also faulted President Muhammadu Buhari for travelling to London for a routine medical check-up when the health sector is dilapidated. Dr Phillips Ekpe, the NMA knocked Ngige for his approach towards ending the strike.
Return to work or we will invoke
‘no work, no pay’ – Ngige
Immediately after the holiday, I will talk to them again. I have told the medical council and accountant general what to do to make sure. Only 23 institutions are involved, not all institutions. I want to know what they (medical council and accountant general) have done by Tuesday. By Tuesday, I will invite them back. If they become recalcitrant, there are other things I can do. There are weapons in the Labour Laws, I will invoke them. There is no work, no pay. “Their employers have a role also to keep their business afloat, to keep patients alive. They can employ local doctors. We won’t get there but if we are going to get there, we will use that stick.” “It is the last NMA President Faduyile that called my attention that the hazard (allowance) was ₦5,000. I raised it with the Finance Minister and the Vice President in the Economic Sustainability Meeting. “The new hazard allowance will be done in the next five weeks.
It is in the Memorandum of Action that we signed. Immediately after the Easter break, I will convene a meeting to look at it holistically.” “NARD made some of the demands in ignorance. They didn’t have the full picture; maybe they wished for a strike or their president pushed them into the strike so that his name would go into the annals of NARD as one of the tough presidents that has taken them on strike. That is wrong. “He (the association’s president) didn’t participate in most of the discussions last Wednesday because he fell ill not long after the meeting started and had to excuse himself. He handed over to his deputy, the Secretary General and other officers of the association, who fully participated.
We spent seven hours and by the time we put our signatures to the papers, it was eight hours. “Disowning the MoA duly negotiated is unknown to labour. The two parties to the negotiation signed the MoA. Four officers from government and three from NARD signed the document and their president who was not at the meeting but fully represented by deputies went to NARD’s NEC and disowned the paper because they were signed by his deputies and secretary general. “There is what is called transmission of power. He, as the president, fell sick and his deputies continued with the meeting. That is allowed.”
Hold Ngige responsible for
lives that will be lost – NARD
The minister should be held responsible for the lives that will be lost from the industrial dispute, Other tweets read, “Mr Labour Minister, it’s a shame the President is going to England for a second opinion on routine medical check-up and the Nigerian masses are dying. “Mr Labour Minister what’s the clinical correlation between the Federal Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Environment as you said sanitation is part of the health budget? “For clarity, no professor of medicine earns his wardrobe allowance. NARD has listened carefully to the labour minister, we aren’t perturbed. “We maintain our stand that nothing has been done. Health workers’ lives matter. We are tired of paperwork; implement your papers Labour Ministry.
“The attention of the NMA has been drawn to a recent live interview on Friday, April 2, 2021, by the Minister of Labour, Dr Chris Ngige. “In the interview, the minister alleged that in the USA and other developed countries, resident doctors pay for their residency training abroad, whereas, in Nigeria, the government pays them In as much as we appreciate the efforts being made by the government to resolve the issues that have led to this avoidable and unnecessary industrial action by NARD, the NMA wishes to clarify the misinformation by the minister in the interview, which is seriously viewed to be a hate speech capable of bringing down the health system in Nigeria and thereby worsening the health care delivery and further escalate the rather unimaginable current brain drain.”
“In the United Kingdom, the employer of resident doctors is the NHS, which is similar to what is obtainable in Nigeria,” “The NMA is totally in disagreement with the way and manner some government functionaries carry out their duties which is completely insensitive to the plight of the people. “Perhaps, this will help to reduce the current brain drain being experienced that is dealing a deadly blow to our health care delivery system, which has made our hospitals to be regarded as mere consulting clinics,” “Nigerians are actually scared. Basically, people cannot talk because they are scared of the unknown and there is fear of being harassed. “Since this strike started, I have received calls from many government agencies to shelve the strike. Some are in form of threats. It’s that bad. They think it is politics, forgetting that we cannot play politics with human lives. We are professionals and being a doctor means you have sworn an oath to take care of lives but when you are hungry or you become a patient, what is your fate?”
