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Doctors begin strike
Doctors begin strike
LERE OJEDOKUN, Abuja ADEZE OJUKWU and
FLORENCE UDOH, Lagos
RESIDENT
doctors yesterday commenced an indefinite strike nation-wide to protest
non-payment of their arrears of salaries and entitlements.
But in an apparent move to stall
the industrial action President Olusegun Obasanjo promised to clear the arrears
from January next year.
Daily Champion investigations
revealed that doctors across the country had since Monday withdrawn their
services, thereby paralysing activities in government’s hospital and health
centres in what was termed "a more serious strike".
Justifying the strike, the
National President of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), Dr.
Oguzie Jerry, told Daily Champion that "government had consistently
failed to address the doctors’s welfare," adding that the action followed
the expiration of a 21-day ultimatum given the government to settle all the
arrears of entitlements and salaries.
Also, president, Association of
Resident Doctors (ARD), Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) Idi-Araba,
branch, Dr Olurotimi Olojede said, "it was unfortunate that the doctors had
to consider strike as the only option because the last salary they received was
in August 2004 which is quite unbearable as they can no longer cope with their
present economic hardship."
Mr Olajide stated that doctors
naturally embrace dialogue in resolving issues, but they had no choice than to
go on strike because "the leadership of this country does not believe in
dialogue anymore."
He said past incidents have shown
that "when we make demands or threats to take industrial action, quick
promises are made by government but never kept".
It would be recalled that ARD,
LUTH chapter had embarked on a five-day warning strike last month, after which
doctors also ordered a two-day warning strike. Thereafter, the doctors
nationwide gave government a 21-day ultimatum to meet their demands.
One of the (LUTH’s) resident
doctors who spoke to Daily Champion noted that in the past decades, there
were no reports of doctors going on strike, "but now, the situation in the
health sector is so bad.
"The workers don’t get
paid, we don’t have our daily bread; it is being denied us, hence we have to
take this hard decision," he said.
Speaking in the same vein, the
Public Relations Officer of LUTH, Mr. Ayo Olagunju, described as unfair the
situation whereby government usually reneges when agreements are reached with
doctors.
Beyond the doctors, demand for
improved welfare is also the call for government to urgently address the decay
of facilities in government’s hospitals and the health institutions across the
country.
As the ARD, LUTH chapter’s
strike has begun, according to Olojede, it is an indefinite strike which the
doctors have resolved to do as long as it takes government to meet their
demands.
Meanwhile, President Obasanjo
yesterday assured that all the salary arrears and allowances would be paid next
January.
The President was quoted as
making this promise while addressing an enlarged meeting of Heads of Federal
agencies and parastatals at the Council Chambers Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Senior Special Assistant to the
President on Media, Mrs Oluremi Oyo, briefed State House correspondents on the
outcome of the meeting.
While explaining that Obasanjo
was bothered about the plight of the doctors and consequence of strike on the
citizenry, she noted that all necessary steps would be taken to ensure payment
of salary arrears of health workers nationwide.
"President Obasanjo has again appealed to
health workers, especially the resident doctors who have begun the strike that
it is important that they note that he is concerned about the claims that they
have made and that come January, which is only a few weeks away, God willing,
his government would be in a position to start making payments that are
accruable to them," she assured.
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