Editorial
Doctors Strike: Time For A Rethink
As the strike action embarked upon by
medical doctors under the aegis of the
Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) takes its toll on human lives in the country, Nigerians are beginning to question the propriety of their action and the urgency of their demands.
From all indications, they appear to have lost public support and sympathy. Going by the current disposition of the Budget Office, the Federal Government may not accede to their request for pay rise soon owing to some practical economic challenges.
Indeed, the Director-General of the Budget Office, Bright Okogu warned penultimate Monday of dire financial and economic consequences for the country if it continues to accede to demands for pay rise by workers.
Speaking at a stakeholders meeting convened by members of the Federal House of Representatives Committee on Health at the National Assembly Complex, Abuja, Okogu caution against acceding to the demand for pay rise by the striking doctors. That the wage bill of 1.2 million workers under Federal Government pay roll rose to N1.8 trillion out of the N4.6 trillion budgeted for the nation in 2014.
Okogu further stated that there were feelers that other stakeholders in the health sector like nurses, midwives, pharmacists and laboratory technologists are already warming up to embark on a nationwide strike the moment government accedes to demands of the striking doctors which includes outstanding allowances amounting to N13 billion.
Inspite of the high regard for medical doctors, they have embarked on strike more than any other professional group in the past five years. Sadly, they are also the only group that has been impervious to public appeals in spite of the belief that their job is mostly humanitarian.
It is unimaginable and in fact, preposterous for medical doctors to insist, that they be paid much higher than other medical personnel. It is common knowledge that they can do very little without the expertise of other health professionals like nurses, laboratory scientists, physiotherapists among others.
As the death toll rises by the day, doctors remain unperturbed. If not for patriotic or moral commitments, why the cry of fellow Nigerians fail to move them beat the imagination of many.
The Tide is saddened by the facts that as lives are lost, these people are glad to reap bountifully from their private practices. Giving the man-hours lost, much against the grain of the very etiquette underguarding the hypocritic oath, doctors in Nigeria have become unbelievable.
In advanced countries that Nigerians easily refer to, doctors do not proceed on strikes with reckless abandon. Indeed, there is no negotiation that they could not have had without embarking on strike. Also clear is the fact that doctors are not always the highest paid medical officers , they are also not the only ones to head hospitals.
Albeit, the time for our Oliver Twist medical doctors to have a rethink has come, their bloated self image like that of the lecturers – who in 2009 under the auspices of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) shot up the Nation’s wage bill from N857 billion to N1.8 trillion.
While we call on government to kick-start a programme that will ensure the training of more doctors and quickly too, the reward system in the country must be urgently reviewed. Indeed, we must place premium on professionals instead of political office holders, whose take home has tended to set the template for value allocation in the country.
A situation where a councilor, which is about the lowest political office, earns more than a doctor or professor or even a journalist is un-acceptable. For a councilor with little or no training to earn more also serves as disincentive for education and career development.
Even so, Nigeria is at a cross road when all patriots must make sacrifices until the current crises are over. There is very little a government can do when it is pressed from all sides. Apart from the fact that it could be overwhelmed, the outbreak of Ebola should make these medical doctors suspend their strike unconditionally until the coast is clear
There are moments in the life of a legislature when plain speaking becomes a public service. Senator Adams Oshiomhole provided such a moment on the floor of the Senate when he accused the Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, of manifestly neglecting critical federal arteries in Edo and Delta States, and implored his colleagues to prevail on the Minister to adopt a more equitable and genuinely national approach to road infrastructure delivery. It was blunt, it was uncomfortable, and it was necessary.
The specifics of his complaint deserve restating. Drawing attention to the recent approval of some 20 new road projects despite the parlous state of existing ones, the former Edo State governor lamented that Nigerians cannot travel from Benin to Warri, Benin to Asaba, Benin to Auchi, or Auchi to Okene without encountering severe distress. He alleged a deliberate omission of these corridors from the national budget in the last three years, save for palliative interventions directed by President Bola Tinubu through tax credit arrangements. His question — “What have we done wrong?” — resonates far beyond the chambers of the National Assembly.
We lend our full and unequivocal support to that call. The Auchi-Benin Road, for instance, has been in a deplorable and near-impassable condition for several years, turning what should be a two-hour journey into an all-day ordeal of broken axles, extortionate fares, and despondent commuters. The media have, on multiple occasions, chronicled the suffering of motorists, traders, and students who ply that route. To describe it as a federal road today is to stretch the meaning of the term beyond recognition.
This pattern of sidelining is not confined to Edo or Delta. Even here in Rivers State, the disposition of the Federal Ministry of Works has left much to be desired, particularly along the Eleme axis of the East-West Road. That road, which ought to be a flagship of federal presence in the Niger Delta, has remained in a wretched state for long. Those who use it daily — workers at the Eleme Petrochemical Complex, the two refineries, Onne Port, and the countless ancillary industries — can attest to its deterioration. Work has proceeded in fits and starts without the sustained urgency such a strategic road demands.
The Eleme stretch is not a mere intra-state byway. It is the gateway to the nation’s economic jugular. According to the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing’s 2023 Highway Condition Survey, only about 35 per cent of the country’s 36,000 kilometres of federal roads are rated as being in good or fair condition, with the remainder classified as poor or very poor. The East-West Road, conceived in the 1970s to bind the entire Niger Delta, remains unfinished in critical sections more than four decades after. If it had been treated as a priority, the perennial gridlock, carnage, and economic loss on the Eleme-Refinery junction would have long been consigned to history.
The irony is as painful as it is glaring. The Niger Delta remains the goose that lays the golden eggs. Data from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative [NEITI 2023 Oil and Gas Audit] show that the region still accounts for over 78 per cent of Nigeria’s federally collected export earnings and about 65 per cent of total government revenue. The National Bureau of Statistics [NBS Foreign Trade Report Q4 2024] similarly confirms that crude oil continues to dominate export receipts. By every metric of equity and economic logic, a region that sustains the national purse deserves first-rate consideration in the allocation of infrastructure, not afterthoughts and tokenism.
Road infrastructure is not largesse to be dispensed by favour; it is the skeleton upon which commerce, cohesion, and citizenship hang. When contracts are concentrated in one geopolitical zone while other zones are left to contend with craters, it erodes trust in the federation itself. The World Bank’s Nigeria Development Update [June 2023] estimated that poor transport connectivity inflates the cost of moving goods by up to 40 per cent and costs the Nigerian economy an estimated $1.5 billion annually in lost man-hours and vehicle maintenance. If we profess to be one country, then equity must be the compass that guides key institutions before any project is executed. Development must spread round, not pool in one place as though other regions do not matter.
There is also a grave security dimension that can no longer be ignored. The deplorable condition of federal roads has become a veritable enabler of criminality. The NBS Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey reported over 2.5 million incidents of kidnapping-related occurrences nationally, with transport workers identifying bad road spots as prime ambush points. When vehicles are forced to crawl at 10 kilometres per hour through failed sections at Auchi, Sapele Road, or Eleme, they become sitting ducks for armed gangs. Fixing bad roads, therefore, is not merely about convenience; it is about safeguarding lives.
By his intervention, Senator Oshiomhole has hit the nail on the head and reminded Minister Umahi of a fundamental constitutional truth: public office is held in trust. The Ministry of Works is not a personal estate where contracts are awarded according to whim or political convenience. It is a national institution funded by the collective resources of Nigerians, including the oil and gas rents from the very communities whose roads are now neglected. The Minister must demonstrate balance, transparency, and a pan-Nigerian outlook in the distribution of projects that impact the daily existence of citizens. Selective neglect breeds suspicion, and suspicion is corrosive at a time when the nation is preaching unity, oneness, equity, and justice.
Consequently, the National Assembly must go beyond rhetoric and assert its oversight powers with vigour. Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution [as amended] empower the legislature to investigate and expose any maladministration in the execution of federal projects. If an office holder is not acting rightly, it is the duty of the Senate and the House of Representatives to call him to order. Oversight must not be reduced to budget approval ceremonies; it must translate to field verification, public hearings, and insistence that the Federal Character principle, as enshrined in Section 14(3) of the Constitution, reflects in road awards.
Let the Auchi-Okene, Benin-Warri, Benin-Asaba, and Eleme East-West gangways be restored to motorable dignity. Let priority be given to completing existing, economically vital roads before embarking on new ones. If those who, through their resources, sustain the federation are sidelined in the distribution of tangible dividends, it tells poorly of our nationhood. Bad roads must be fixed, and they must be fixed now, with fairness as the guiding standard.
