Deadlock as NMA Fails to Call off Strike

Says we cannot deal with emotions
Paul Obi 
Hope that medical doctors would call off their nationwide strike was yesterday shattered as the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) ended in a deadlock.

The federal government had earlier hinted that given the agreement with the NMA to address all contending issues, the strike would be called off this week.

But in the early hours of yesterday, THISDAY investigation revealed that the doctors were determined to continue with the industrial action.
A source within the NMA had earlier informed THISDAY that the “strike continues indefinitely, also, no emergency services. Delegates think government’s interventions are equivocal.”

But speaking with THISDAY, the NMA Secretary General, Dr Adewunmi Alakayi, said: “When we met with the government, we agreed to take the resolutions to the NEC, so when we tabled them before the NEC, they were completely rejected.”

Alakayi explained that the issue was beyond signing Memoranda of Understanding (MoU), saying: “It is not only about MoU, government has not addressed the issues.”

On the clarification by the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, that government had heeded to NMA demands,  Alakayi rather maintained that: “Chukwu is speaking from the other side, he is on the side of government,  we cannot say the issues have been tackled.”
Alakayi also told THISDAY that the NMA could not be harassed into calling off the strike, “because we cannot deal with emotions as the outcome of patients’ care is important.  We cannot allow anarchy to thrive because the burden will be too much.”

The President of the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN), Dr. Steven Oluwole, also told journalists yesterday that the real issues had not been addressed.

He explained that: “It is important for the government negotiation team to understand why the delegates feel so distraught.

“The restraint and caution of the MDCAN should not be used to malign junior medical doctors to accept ‘suffering and smiling attitude’. Junior doctors are at the frontline of patient management.
“They work endlessly in the hospitals. Sophisticated administrative and establishment arguments of why there should be no skipping for doctors will not placate.”