The National Association of Resident Doctors has reassured Nigerians that its strike was not targeted at punishing them.
This was revealed by NARD former Vice-President, Dr. Julian Ojebo via a live radio programme on Nigeria Info, on Thursday.
Ojebo disclosed that the industrial action was important following the deadlocked meeting with the Federal Government.
The doctors had embarked on a nationwide strike despite Federal Government’s last-minute efforts to stop the action.
The association also justified its action via its Twitter handle @nard_nigeria on Thursday morning.
“Nigerians must understand that we love them and the strike is not intended to hurt them but to challenge the Nigerian government @MBuhari @Fmohnigeria @LabourMinNG whose responsibilities amongst others is to care for her citizens and labour force to do the needful.”
The strike is happening at a time when the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), is in London for a medical check-up.
The Federal Government had signed a Memorandum of Action with NARD, aimed at averting the planned nationwide strike.
The agreement was signed at midnight on Wednesday, after a seven-hour meeting between the government side and the leadership of NARD at the office of the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige.
The meeting deliberated on the issues raised by the aggrieved doctors in their Notice of Trade Dispute, including the non-payment of salaries of some House officers, non-recruitment of House officers, abolishment of the bench fees for doctors undergoing training in other hospitals, non-payment of National Minimum Wage and hazard allowances.
Speaking immediately after the commencement of the resident doctors’ strike on Thursday morning, Ojebo said, “It is true that there were reconciliatory meetings yesterday (Wednesday).
“It’s quite sad that the meetings were called on the eve of the day Nigerian doctors said they were tired of government insincerity.
“In July or August last year, we were on this same boat saying that the government was insincere and the people said they wanted us to call off the strike and that the government would listen to us.
“Nine months down the line, not even one of the demands has been met. The demands are that the healthcare workers at the risk of infectious diseases should have some form of allowances that could cover them.
“I’m not saying money is the ultimate thing, but there should be some form of stimulus to say we encourage you, keep fighting, but none of this has been done.
“The hazard allowance is still at N5,000. All across the country, over 1,000 of our members were exposed to COVID-19.”
Ojebo noted that the doctors decided to embark on the industrial action as instructed by the NARD president, Dr. Uyilawa Okhuaihesuyi.
“This is stemming from the fact that following those reconciliatory meetings, nothing tangible was done and we know that there is so much insincerity on the part of the government.
“It’s painful that we hear from people that this is not the right timing for doctors to go on strike. It’s painful, especially knowing the kind of government we have.
“As the president [Okhuaihesuyi] said, there is no relationship between politics and medicine. if you want to do politics, do your politics, don’t bring it to medicine.
“Do you know the number of nurses that have lost their lives in the process of trying to give healthcare to people? Do you know the number of doctors that are being exposed to these infections on a daily basis?
“All we are saying is that government should come to the table, give us a timeline of what it wants to do, we are not saying they should do all of them at once. These are the issues we keep having over and over again and it is painful,” Ojebo said.
