Chairman, House Committee on Health, Ndudi Elumelu has urged the Nigerian Medical Association to tender an apology to all Nigerians due to the strike embarked upon by doctors nationwide. The strike, which lasted for 55 days until it was called off over the weekend, brought untold hardship on Nigerians.
Elumelu had during a briefing at the National Assembly on Monday, described the doctors’ decision to stay away in the face of glaring health challenges as ‘unpatriotic.’
He said:
“The leadership of NMA has been described as unpatriotic even by other Nigerian doctors, as well as members of the public in view of various health challenges confronting the nation and the scourge of Ebola virus disease, which erupted during the strike period.
“The committee has a final word for NMA; The NMA has suspended the strike, but it has failed to do one thing: the NMA failed to apologise to Nigerians. The NMA should apologise to Nigerians for all the inconveniences and lives that were lost during the strike.”
The House Committee Chairman on Health also berated the Federal Government for not keeping to terms of agreements reached with the doctors. He said:
“One of such lessons is the need to obey agreements. The law is pacta sunt servanda meaning agreements must be obeyed. If parties had obeyed previous agreements executed between NMA and representatives of Federal Government, the strike would have been averted. The lesson to learn here is that we must at all times obey contents of agreements freely entered into in order to avert crisis,” he said.
He noted that the new salary structure of medical doctors would reflect in next year’s budget; and that doctors will start receiving the new salary structure from January, 2015.
Elumelu therefore called on the Nigerian Medical Association to call off its 55 day old strike and return back to work.
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