Tinubu receives industrial action baptism from doctors, NLC strikes August 2
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Bola Tinubu will receive today his baptism of industrial action from the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) over poor pay and near impossible working conditions that have driven medical personnel to emigrate in droves.
The President in the first few days of his administration obtained a court injunction preventing the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) from going on strike over fuel subsidy removal.
Nonetheless, the NLC has announced it will begin its strike on August 2 over the hike in the pump price of petrol that has increased the cost of transportation with the multiplier effect of raising the prices of goods and services countrywide.
NARD President Emeka Orji disclosed the decision to embark on strike today was taken at the NARD National Executive Council (NEC) meeting in Lagos in July.
The doctors are demanding, among others
- Implementation of the one-for-one replacement policy for healthcare workers
- The Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) to stop downgrading membership certificate issued by the West African Postgraduate Medical and Surgical Colleges
- Immediate payment of all salary arrears
- Implementation of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure
- A new hazard allowance
- Domestication of the Medical Residency Training Act
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Doctors dying from overwork
“Our members are saying that we have been on this since January on the same issues, and they are not going to continue to wait,” Orji said, per reporting by The PUNCH.
“The very important part of our demands is one-for-one replacement, and doctors are still leaving and the ones remaining are being overworked.
“Last week, a doctor died in Bayelsa State. Doctors are dying from being overworked, and we have been on this for a long time.
“When we met on Friday, everybody was calling for a strike, and I just had to plead with them because the Secretary to the Government, George Akume, intervened, but up till today, we cannot reach them again, and nobody wants to hear about any intervention by the government again.”