…As Parley With Striking Doctors Ends In Stalemate
SAN FRANCISCO, July 14, (THEWILL) – Following the insistence of striking medical workers not to call of their ongoing strike after a meeting with the House of Representatives Committee on Health, the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the Director General of the Budget Office, Dr. Bright Okogu, have been summoned to a stakeholders’ meeting on Thursday at the National Assembly.
Chairman of the House Committee on Health, Hon. Ndudi Elumelu, announced this Monday at a reconciliatory meeting attended by the Minister for Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, his Labour counterpart, Barr. Emeka Nwogu, and representatives of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA).
The chairman, who appealed to all the stakeholders to maintain the status quo also assured the striking workers that Okonjo-Iweala and Okogu would be at the next meeting.
At the meeting, stakeholders urged the Federal Government to include the sum of N6.7 billion required for the payment of relativity allowance for a year in the supplementary budget that will be transmitted to the National Assembly.
In his address at the meeting, the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Wogu, appealed to the striking doctors to suspend the strike as negotiation continues.
According to him, 23 out of the 24 demands have been assigned to respective personnel to be addressed.
The minister requested for between 30 days to three months to enable Federal Government address all the issues, especially the outstanding debts.
He stated that the President had set up a committee chaired by Alhaji Yayale Ahmed to address various issues while the dental workers have taken other issues before the National Industrial Arbitration Court.
The Minister of Health, Chukwu, on his part, expressed the readiness of Federal Government to ensure peaceful resolution of the crisis.
On the issues raised by the lawmakers and government representatives, NMA President, Dr. Kayode Obembe, vowed that the association will not suspend the strike until Federal Government resolved two pertinent issues namely ‘Relativity and Skipping’.
He noted that the NMA is not ‘strike monger’, but blamed the Federal Government and its agencies for failing to honour various agreements reached between both parties.
Obembe alleged that the circular issued by the Health Minister did not reflect the yearnings of the association, adding that the shortfall in the basic salaries of medical doctors has been lingering for 22 years, hence the need to bridge the gaps between medical doctors and other heath workers.
The association however demanded for the payment of N13 billion out of which the sum of N9 billion is to bridge the discrepancies between basic salary for medical doctors and other health workers for year 2014 while the sum of N4 billion is for payment of other allowances for all medical and health workers within the federal service.
SAINT MUGAGA, ABUJA.
