The ongoing industrial action of the National Association of Resident Doctors is illegal and unwarranted, the Federal Government has said.
According to Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu — who was speaking at the opening ceremony of a retreat organised for Chairmen of Boards of Management, Governing Boards, Governing Councils, Chief Executive Officers and Directors of Administration of Tertiary Hospitals and parastatals, themed Action Push Agenda: Transforming Healthcare Delivery in Nigeria — the strike was unnecessary because the government was already handling the contentious issues after a meeting with the Nigerian Medical Association.
“I still remember that the NMA gave us an ultimatum to look at certain issues and we had very long meeting with the NMA and indeed NARD participated in that meeting,” he said.
“There is a committee being chaired by Head of Civil Service of the Federation on which the NMA, including NARD, are well-represented. These are the same matters being handled; so there were persons already in a committee handling those issues and they should have exercised some patience.
“We understand that some of the issues have not been resolved but I think we can do well and exercise some patience before going on strike because when we go on strike, people’s lives are involved.”
Indications that NARD would suspend the strike, now five days old, were rife on Monday after a meeting with Minister of Labour and Productivity, Mr. Emeka Wogu and Minister of Health, Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu.
Head (Press/Public Relations) in the Labour Ministry, Mr. Samuel Olowookere issued a statement saying NARD had agreed to consider the suspension of its ongoing strike action.
“The decision to consider the suspension of the strike action by NARD was reached after a protracted meeting which lasted for over fourteen hours,” he said. “In attendance at the meeting include Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chuckwu; Executive Chairman, National Salaries Income and Wages Commission, Chief Richard Ebule; and Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Ambassador Sani Bala.”
However, as at press time, NARD had yet to make a pronouncement officially suspending the industrial action.
According to Olowookere, the resolutions reached at the end of the meeting imply that Resident Doctors would remain on the IPPIS programme, whose problems will be addressed.
He said the resolution was jointly signed by National President of NARD, Dr. Jubril Abdullahi; Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Health, Ambassador Sani Bala and his counterpart in Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity, Mrs. Chinedu Dik. He also said a high-powered committee to be chaired by Chukwu was inaugurated to address the challenges identified by NARD on IPPIS.
The membership of the committee include, Permanent Secretaries in the Federal Ministries of Health and Labour; Accountant-General of the Federation; Chairman of NSIWC; Director-General, Budget Office of the Federation; Director of Finance and Accounts/IPPIS Coordinator; Nigerian Medical Association and NARD representatives.
According to him, other resolutions were that: Chief Medical Directors would, as earlier stated, come up with the list of Resident Doctors as well as the amount of arrears owed each of them for necessary action by the Honourable Minister of Health within four weeks; and that NARD (FMC Owerri chapter) would suspend its one-month strike and appeal to the Honourable Minister of Health for the non compliance to Section 43 of the Trade Disputes Act, CAP T8, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
