This is not in the least an auspicious time for doctors in Nigeria to embark on any form of strike. Certainly, not at a time the country is confronted with the dangerous onset of the third wave of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, worsening cholera epidemic in some Northern states, particularly in Katsina where 75 deaths have already been recorded, as well as the outbreak of the novel Marburg virus in our own West Africa sub-region, a highly infectious haemorrhagic fever similar to Ebola, and which has already claimed a life in Guinea, according to the World Health Organisation.
Of course, the poor conditions of service for our health personnel is appalling, necessitating their frequent strike actions, but the near-lackadaisical attitude of the government spiked with the sheer arrogance of those charged with overseeing the affairs of Nigerian workers isn’t at all helpful. Rather, it always aggravates the situation, cause avoidable inconveniences and sometimes claims the lives of hapless citizens and create unnecessary tension in the polity.
One is then left to wonder why Ngige would prefer to take on NARD, which is made up of 40 per cent of all the medical doctors in Nigeria and whose membership also constitutes 90 per cent of the medical personnel in Nigeria.
It is appalling sickening that our government officials and others in the corridors of power in this country, for reasons we all need not go further to understand, have the penchant and propensity to behave like the typical local musician in a brothel who pretends not to know what’s going on in the dingy rooms upstairs.
Their (government officials’) outbursts and usually inappropriate statements they make when in a fit of anger or excitement, as the case may be, while performing their role in government, are often tinged but remain an insult to the rest of us.
Such is the case with our ever-garrulous Minister of Labour and Productivity, Dr Chris Ngige. His recent outbursts on the ongoing indefinite strike action declared by doctors under the aegis of the National Association of Resident Doctors, have left so much to be desired and nothing to cheer about. Infact, I have yet to come across a character brasher than this former governor of Anambra State and ex-Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria!
Referring to the striking doctors as if they were some primary school pupils, apparently livid Ngige, who himself is a trained medical doctor, had said on a national live television programme at the weekend, ‘’They are not supposed to go on strike without notifying me 15 days before the day of strike.
“As we speak, I have not received any notification; that is why I am invoking Section 43 of the Labour Act on withdrawal of services, right to strike and the right to protect the employer and their patients.
“Things will happen next week. Let them wait because they are taking government for a ride and it is wrong. They are playing with lives. My children are medical doctors and I have warned them not to be part of this nonsense strike.”
Nonsense strike? Haba, Mr Minister! Such an intemperate language is unbecoming of a high-ranking government official, who should know better concerning matters of national importance like this.
This, of course, is not the auspicious time to engage the striking doctors in any form of combative exchanges. There are real dangers ahead in the nation’s health sector and how prepared the nation is, especially for the challenges and the threat posed to the citizens by the menacing COVID-19 third wave and the novel Marburg virus, which is lurking close to our back yard, is what should be of great concern to every government official.
Our government officials have failed to realise that it is impossible for one to beat a child and at the same time ask him not to cry. The striking doctors are being owed a whopping N5.5billion in unpaid salaries and allowances!
Rather than being unnecessarily hostile to the striking doctors over their legitimate action, officials charged with addressing the matter on behalf of the government, nay Dr Chris Ngige, should adopt a conciliatory approach. After all, this is the fourth time the NARD members would be going on an “indefinite strike” since 2020 over the same issues, and by now any serious government should have been able to address, if not all, but most of the doctors’ grievances, instead of waiting for the matter to degenerate, only to then resort to some strong-arm tactics, which would culminate in a deadlock such as we are experiencing today.
Our government officials have failed to realise that it is impossible for one to beat a child and at the same time ask him not to cry. The striking doctors are being owed a whopping N5.5billion in unpaid salaries and allowances!
Therefore, the Minister need not be told that invoking the “no-work, no pay rule,” at this perilous time when the evil triumvirate of the COVID-19 third wave, cholera epidemic and novel Marburg virus are baring their fangs, will not solve the myriad of problems in Nigeria’s health sector. Rather, it will worsen it as the striking doctors have the option of seeking greener pastures outside Nigeria’s shores, where their services are in high demand and they are better appreciated and adequately remunerated, if the atmosphere at home becomes too unfriendly.
Following the country’s COVID-19 experience last year, by now, government should have upgraded some hospitals or even built standard hospitals that could take care of the citizens’ health needs. Alas, that has not been the case.
Currently, President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Leader of the ruling party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, are both abroad seeking treatment for undisclosed ailments amid the indefinite strike by doctors in Nigeria, the country over which they are holding the reins of governance. One is not begrudging them for looking for healings outside the shores of Nigeria for certain ailments that may not be treated here, but if the proper thing had been done and our health sector totally overhauled over the past years, the need for such medical tourism would have been taken care of to a large extent locally.
If our leaders don’t have the option of going abroad for medical treatment, they would be forced to always look inwards to quickly address the grievances of doctors and other medical personnel before they degenerate to such an indefinite strike action that we have on our hands now.
But the masses who use these hospitals, where these striking doctors work, are not in the least taken into consideration by those in the corridors of power.
One fact: Ngige’s outburst, no doubt, has exposed the hypocrisy of those in authority about our health care sector. They only unabashedly mouth plans to improve our hospitals while deep down their hearts they prefer to look away while hapless Nigerians die than admit their abysmal failure in delivering the dividends for which they have found their into public office.
Even the blind knows that Nigeria’s health care sector desperately needs massive funding, and it behoves the government to find a way to get this done and deliver on its promises to provide adequate and quality healthcare for Nigerians, even if it’s not going to (and has it really ever been?) be free. It’s incontrovertible fact that Nigeria’s healthcare sector is overdue for a complete overhaul. As a matter of course, it’s wailing for massive long term funding from government, particularly from the Federal and state governments.
We cannot continue to use the same strategy and expect a different result or outcome.
For now, what should matter most to Minister Ngige and NARD should be a quick resolution of the perennial issues that have led to the ongoing doctors’ strike, which is now in its second week, to prevent further loss of lives due to the current action. So, this is no time for grandstanding by either the government or the striking doctors. It is time for urgent action on both sides to save the health and lives of the ordinary Nigerians who are the usual clients of the various public hospitals already crippled by these avoidable strike. Their groaning in those deserted public hospital wards and shylocked private clinics must not be allowed to degenerate to strident wailing.
May God save Nigeria.