SAN FRANCISCO, July 17, (THEWILL) – The House of Representatives Thursday said it will not hesitate to invoke relevant constitutional provisions to get the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu and the Director General, Budget Office, Dr. Bright Okogu, should they fail to honour an invitation from the House Committee on Health with stakeholders to resolve the ongoing strike by medical workers.
The Speaker of the House, Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, who issued the warning, at the plenary sitting of the House, was reacting to the report by the chairman of the House Committee on Health, Hon. Ndudi Elumelu, complaining about the non-cooperative attitude of the ministers to effort by the committee to end the strike action.
Elumelu had told the House that all attempts at getting all stakeholders in the matter to meet and reach a quick resolution have been frustrated by the attitude of government officials who are critical to the resolution of the crisis.
“Mr. Speaker, the task given to my committee was a straightforward one – which entails getting all relevant parties involved in the crisis and interface with them with a view to resolving it within the quickest possible time due to the sensitive nature of the heath sector.
“Last week Monday, we met with the Minister of Labour, the Minister of Health, people from the Salaries and Wages Commission. But since the Minister of Finance and the DG, Budget Office as well as the Head of Service who are central to the issues of relativity (salary scale) and skipping (career progression/promotion) were not present, we adjourned the hearing to Thursday when we can all sit to resolve the matter and for medical services to be restored in our hospitals.
“But unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Salaries and Wages Commission and the Minister of Labour turned up as promised, whereas the Minister of Health and his Finance counterpart failed to appear for us to talk.
“While the Health Minister claimed he was going to represent Mr. President at an event, there was no single representation from the ministry, neither was there any from the Finance Minister which suggests that they are not serious about resolving this crisis to save lives of Nigerians who are dying every minute as a result of the strike,” he said.
The House had two weeks ago mandated the Committee on Health to intervene in the ongoing strike and look for ways to resolving the disagreement between the Federal Government and NMA.
SAINT MUGAGA, ABUJA
