Nigeria may be in for more serious trouble should the Federal Government fail to meet the demands of the National Association of Resident Doctors.
This is as the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) has vowed to join the strike action by the resident doctors if the state and federal governments failed to pay the resident doctors all their due wages.
NMA, in a statement issued on Friday, chided both federal and state governments for allowing the strike by the resident doctors to linger, paralysing hospitals across the country to the detriment of the Nigerian people.
In the statement signed by its Chairman on Inter Affiliate Affairs, Dr Rosemary Uzowulu and titled, “High cost of governance maintained yet payment of doctors to avert health sector destruction a failure from government”, NMA said the ongoing strike was needless if those in position of power were sincere.
According to NMA, the political leaders in the country are playing a game with the health of Nigerians because they can easily travel abroad for medical treatment.
The statement read in part, “it is most unfortunate that budget allocation for newspapers for assembly members, state governors, the presidency is approved and implemented within days of signing by Mr President, and yet the residency training allocation budgeted and endorsed cannot be implemented.
“The country in face of the high cost of governance has decided to use the health of her subject to play chess game where king and queens display the power of crown by killing their guards.
“I call on well-meaning Nigerians across the country to quickly put a stop to the strike by mandating those concerned including the state governors for state hospitals to pay the resident doctors all their due wages or stand the chance of black cloud collapse from NMA if the battle lingers.”