By Cosmas Omegoh & Vera Wisdom Bassey
Beginning from May13 2023, Nigerians might witness another round of strike if the Federal Government fails to accede to the latest demands of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD).
Indications that an industrial disharmony looms emerged after the National Executive Council (NEC) of the doctors concluded its state-of-the-nation meeting in Abeokuta after which it issued fresh demands.
In a release signed by the NARD’s President, Dr Orji Emeka Innocent;
Secretary-General, Dr Chikezie Kelechi O., Publicity and Social Secretary, Dr Umar Musa, the doctors noted that if the government failed to listen to them, “we may not be able to guarantee industrial harmony in the sector nationwide.”
Among other things, the doctors demanded “an immediate increment in the CONMESS salary structure to the tune of 200 per cent of the current gross salary of doctors in addition to the new allowances included in the letter written by NARD to the honorable Minister of Health on the 7th of July 2022 for the review of CONMESS.”
The doctors took a swipe at federal law maker, Mr Ganiyu Johnson and demanded an “immediate withdrawal and jettisoning of the ill-conceived bill,” he presented at the National Assembly, describing it as “an enslavement of young doctors in Nigeria.”
The doctors noted that asked “immediate payment of the 2023 Medical Residency
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Training Fund (MRTF) in line with the agreements reached at the stakeholders’ meeting convened by the Federal Ministry of Health at the honourable Minister of State for Health’s conference room,” insisting that “this should be done without further delay.”
In the same vein, the doctors demanded “the commencement of payment of all salary arrears owed to our members including 2014, 2015, and 2016 salary arrears as well as areas of the consequential adjustment of the minimum wage.”
They also demanded an “immediate massive recruitment of clinical staff in the hospitals and complete abolishment of bureaucratic limitations
to the immediate replacement of doctors who leave the system.”
Also on their demand list is “immediate infrastructural development in our various hospitals without further delay and insists on at least 15% budgetary allocation to various hospitals,” as well as “immediate implementation of CONMESS, Domestication of MRTA, and review of hazard allowance by all the state governments as well as private tertiary health institutions where any form of residency training is done.”
The doctors also wanted the federal government to commence “payment of all salary arrears owed to our members by the various state governments, notorious amongst which is the Abia State government.”
The doctor
emphasised a need to revisit the “infrastructural decay in the health sector as well as the severe manpower shortage in the sector, while noting that “despite several requests by NARD, the government has still refused to provide at least 15 per cent budgetary allocation to the health sector as contained in the 2001 Abuja Declaration for health care financing in Africa to which Nigeria is a signatory.”
They described “the current 5.7 percent allocation in the 2023 budget as laughable for a country claiming to be committed to safeguarding the health of her citizens and nipping the challenge of brain drain in the bud.”