Strike: Reps, Doctors’ Meeting Deadlocked Again

Efforts by the House of
Representatives to resolve the ongoing strike by medical doctors in the country failed again last Monday, as members of the Nigerian Medical Association stuck to their demands.
The House of Representatives Committee on Health, led by Mr. Ndudi Elumelu, had held a meeting for over five hours with the NMA leadership in Abuja, in a bid to call off the strike.
The meeting was also attended by the Minister of Health, Dr. Onyebuchi Chukwu, the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Emeka Worgu; the Director-General, Budget Office of the Federation, Dr. Bright Okogu and top officials of the National Salaries and Wages Commission.
A key issue of discord was the N6.7 billion arrears of benefits owed the doctors, calculated in the first instance from January to June, 2014. However, the total amount, reflecting the new rates of the benefits for the entire year, was put at N13 billion.
The committee, after a lengthy discussion, was able to extract a commitment from the DG Budget to pay two months of the arrears to the doctors by the end of August.
Okogu had told the committee that the budget office could only source the two months and nothing more because the financial demands of the doctors were not captured in the 2014 budget.
He assured the meeting that the balance of the other months would be provided for in the 2015 budget for appropriation by the National Assembly.
At this point, Elumelu, Worgu and Okogu all pleaded with the NMA to suspend the strike. But the NMA, represented by its First Vice-President, Dr. Titus Ibekwe, rejected the mode of implementation of the payment.
He stated that if the association accepted the two months, the “new rates must also apply in subsequent months” or there was no agreement.

Okoro Okechukwu, a kidney patient at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, seeking public assistance for a kidney transplant.