Unending troubles in Nigeria’s health sector

These are not the best of times in the Nigerian health sector and they are only reflections of events of the recent past. Doctors under the aegis of National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) have remained unyielding to all entreaties, cajoling and even threats for them to end their lingering strike that has now entered its third week, leaving the hospitals in dire situations.

NARD called out its members on an indefinite strike action in spite of a fresh wave of coronavirus pandemic and raging cholera, citing unpaid salaries and poor benefits. There seems no end in sight for the strike action despite its effect on Nigerians seeking healthcare in various hospitals.

Stories abound of the plight of patients who have suffered various injuries and deaths. Sadly, both the government and medical doctors have refused to shift their position. Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labour who, incidentally, is a medical doctor, has remained adamant, insisting that the doctors are not supposed to go on strike now, while the striking doctors have continued to protest.

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Besides unpaid salaries and benefits, the doctors also accuse the federal government of falling short on promises made earlier this year to meet these demands. They explain that about four months after they suspended the first strike action in April this year, government has reneged on all promises they made.

“We insist that the Memorandum of Action (MoA) signed with government must be met. We would not be oppressed. So far, they are asking us to trust government, which we trusted 119 days ago and nothing has happened,” the striking doctors say.

Apparently tired of threatening mass sack and no work, no pay, or angry with their unyielding position, the federal government has taken NARD to the Industrial Court of Nigeria in Abuja, seeking to enforce the ‘no work no pay’ rule on the association’s members.

NARD has described government’s action as an oppression and has, therefore, vowed to continue the strike action. This, expectedly, is going to prolong the resolution of the impasse and we are only worried that the whole thing will deepen patients’ woes in public hospitals across the country.

Read Also: Strike: FG says not responsible for most of doctors’ demands

As if this is not enough, the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) has threatened to embark on a nationwide strike unless the government addresses its wage issues.

Besides unpaid salaries and benefits, the doctors also accuse the federal government of falling short on promises made earlier this year to meet these demands

The senior doctors are not comfortable with the directive of the Nigerian Salaries, Income and Wages Commission (NSWIC) that hospitals paying lecturing doctors should stop, according to its president, Ken Ozoilo, a Professor.

Contrary to NSWIC’s view, Ozoilo explains that there is a peculiarity in the nature of their job because they are employed as lecturers in the universities faculties of medicine and they are also employed as consultants in the teaching hospitals.

“So, the nature of the work is that each of those two jobs is full-time. Even if the students are on holiday, they are still at the hospitals working. Even if there’s an ASUU strike, they are in the hospital working and even if the hospital is on strike, they are in the university working,” he explained further.

Nigerians are highly worried by these ugly developments in the nation’s health sector and we are not any different. We share in the pains of many hapless Nigerians who are at the receiving end of the equally unfortunate developments.

While some patients have been left to their fate, languishing in pains on their sick beds, others may not have been as lucky. They have had to give up the ghost and this is simply because, in our view, government has been less responsible and insensitive while the doctors, on their part, have demonstrated lack of capacity for restraints.

Nigerians seem to have the misfortune having governments that only understand the language of force or coercion. Again, the country has always had governments that find it difficult to respect agreements they enter willingly with trade unions and where they do, it is always done half-heartedly.

We are alarmed that a country that has, over the years, suffered the scourge of brain drain in its health sector, could be this insensitive to the plight of the few doctors remaining in the ill-equipped hospitals.

Pathetically, Nigeria has the highest level of medical tourism at the very top and this finds explanation in the emptiness that defines the nation’s hospitals at both primary and tertiary levels.

Perhaps, in a more civilized societies, it would have been quite embarrassing that while many citizens are dying in hospitals because doctors are on strike over unpaid salaries, the president of the country left for a medical check-up abroad and came back after many days to a heroic welcome. That action simply tells the Nigeria story and it is rather upsetting.

When this is placed side by side with the daily killing that has made the country a killing field with little or no concern from the government, we begin to see a government that places little or no value on human life. No wonder it is argued in some quarters that, in Nigeria, human lives are worth much less than those of cattle or cows.

We demand an end to all these needless and avoidable deaths in Nigeria. In the medical profession, saving lives is not only sacrosanct, but a creed. For the government, safety of lives and property of citizens is a sacred duty which means that, at every instance, government must ensure that no citizen dies recklessly.

We, therefore, join the rest of Nigerians to plead with both the government and the striking doctors to sheathe their swords; let there be a shifting of positions for the interest of the people and the country.

Government must show responsibility in all its agreements with the people either as individuals or group. A group has just advised that the over N4billion government has allegedly set aside to police WhatsApp calls and messages should be used to pay the doctors. We cannot agree more.