Doctors’ Strike: We Can’t Allow Nigerians To Continue Suffering – NMA

The leadership of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has attributed the ongoing strike by the Nigerian Association of Residents Doctors (NARD) to what it called the uncooperative attitude of the immediate past leadership of the doctors.

The strike has been going on for 58 days.

NMA President, Prof. Innocent Uja, stated this when he led the newly elected leadership of NARD to a meeting with Labour and Employment Minister Chris Ngige in Abuja.

Uja said: “We cannot pretend that all is well. We had to look at some of the things that have unraveled since August 2. As you know, I’m a man of peace and my leadership is for peace. We really want to resolve this once and for all so that we can move on. Nigerians are suffering and we can’t allow it to continue.”

In a statement by the Deputy Director of Press and Public Relations in the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Charles Akpan, Uja added: “I, as the President of the NMA, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with every other person here in my belief, in my considered opinion, that we were working on the same platform, that we truly believe in what we signed. I have no doubt that what I signed was not in error.

“I signed with full understanding of the content of what we were signing. We believe that what is holding us from going back to work can be resolved. We are not asking for everything now because there is a 12-point agenda. Some can go for a while and others can be resolved today or would have been resolved yesterday.”

The NMA president assured the minister that the new leadership of NARD had a better understanding of the issues in contention and had a better approach to resolve them with the cooperation of the Federal Government.

Ngige said it was unbelievable that the former NARD leadership took doctors through four different strikes within one year.

The minister described the development as strange and a bastardisation of the medical profession.

Also, the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) and Assembly of Healthcare Professional Associations (AHPA) have urged the Federal Government to meet its demands to avoid shutdown of the Health sector.

The unions’ appeal is coming on the heels of its 15-day ultimatum, which it said will expire in a few days.

The unions said this in a statement yesterday in Abuja by JOHESU Chairman Biobelemoye Josiah.

The unions, at the end of their expanded National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, gave the Federal Government a fresh 15-day notice to meet its demands.