The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors, NARD, has stated that the Federal Government has been indifferent towards implementing its part of the bargain in its present strike, citing that the National Assembly may have “taken off its hands” from resolving the conflict.
This was disclosed by NARD Publicity Secretary, Dr Dotun Oshikoya, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday.
NARD disclosed that the executive arm of the government was not responsive and playing its role to resolve the issues, stating that the NASS cannot do the job of the executive.
What NARD said
NARD said, “The way I see things now, it looks like the NASS is taking off its hands from the issue.
“The executive arm of the government is not doing anything to implement our demands and the NASS can only be a mediator and make recommendations; they cannot do their work for them.
“Despite our discussions with the NASS nothing tangible has been done to address the issues that triggered the strike.
“The Federal Government has just been paying lip service in the media to either confuse the public or gain sympathy.
“Nothing concrete has been done. They have just been engaging in bureaucracies but they are yet to solve the problems.”
NARD stated that if the FG was sincere, the ongoing strike should have ended by now, citing that the strike is three weeks old and nothing has been done despite the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in April as members are yet to collect salaries.
“We have realised that the government is insincere as per our demands.
“Our members being owed salaries are yet to see an alert since the strike commenced and the government has also not informed us of when exactly these salaries would be paid.
“They signed an MoU with the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) that they will not victimise any doctor.
“As I speak to you, however, a circular was issued directing all Chief Medical Directors and Medical Directors of all public hospitals in Nigeria to open a register and institute no-work-no-pay for all doctors.
“Some of our members in the state and federal health institutions are yet to collect between three to four months’ salaries, some are owed nine months or more. With the no-work-no-pay directive, these doctors will not also get their salary for August.
“The government’s only concern now is to stop the salaries of doctors not working when it already owes these doctors salaries spanning several months to a year,” they said.
In case you missed it
Nairametrics reported earlier that the Federal government ordered the stoppage of salaries and allowances of the striking resident doctors as they have commenced the implementation of the ‘no work, no pay’ rule with effect from Monday, August 2, 2021.