Doctors’ strike: Matters arising

By Kola Odepeju
If we call this period a season of strike – yet again – in the history of our country we are not making a mistake. For a surety it’s stating the obvious.

This kind of period isn’t uncommon in the history of our country. I mean a period when virtually all the critical sectors in the life of the country would go on strike for one reason or the other that mostly bother on the failure of government to meet their demands.
For about seven months the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) went on strike. They only just called off the strike to resume back to classrooms on Monday. It took seven months for light to appear at the end of the tunnel with respect to their demands from the Federal Government. What a pity? Their counterparts in the country’s Polythenics i.e Academic Staff. Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) are also on strike.
As for the ASUP it’s already running to a year that they have embarked on strike action. If am not mistaking this is about the eleventh month that they started. And there seems to be no end in sight to the strike. One only prays that the on-going talk between the new Minister of Education and the Union will yield a positive result at the end. Otherwise, God knows the unknown.
For the past three weeks now the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has been on strike. In the wake of this strike only God knows the number of patients that have died in our public hospitals while a lot are writhing in pain for lack of Doctors’ attention. Though the Nurses are trying their best to attend to the patients who still remain in the hospitals, little can they do because the work of Nurses are quite distinct from that of Doctors even though they are both in the same industry.
In Nigeria strike has for long become the instrument of negotiation. This is quite absurd. And the reason isn’t far-fetched why this is so. As stated in the second paragraph above at the root of all these incessant strike actions being embarked upon by members of the critical sectors of the country’s life are irresponsibility and insensitivity on the part of successive governments of this country.
The failure of government to address the plight facing members of these various Unions at the appropriate time, is no doubt responsible for the continuous strikes we have been witnessing so far. And I make bold to say that until government makes a U-turn from this idea of turning a deaf ear to the demands of these Unions then strike will remain the instrument of negotiation in this country. Only an irresponsible government will wait for professionals to go on strike before it agrees to sit down with them to negotiate apropos their demands.
With respect to the current strike by NMA it’s clear that the Doctors have given the government enough time for the two parties to come to a round table for talk concerning the Doctors’ demands. Also enough notice was given by NMA for the strike during which a responsible government ought to have engaged in talk with its representatives. If this had been done am sure the current strike would have been averted. But because the lackadaisical attitude of our government will always play itself out then the result is what we are experiencing now.
Surely when two elephants fight it’s the grass that suffers. The deaths of patients being witnessed in our various government hospitals due to this Doctors strike saddens the mind. Under this harsh economy how many people can afford to go to private hospitals for treatment? But I hate to hear people blaming the Doctors and accusing them of wickedness because of the oath they have sworn to, to protect lives under whatever condition. Honestly, I hate to hear people blame them.
The fact that the Doctors made such oath doesn’t mean they should be taken for granted and subjected to shabby treatment by the government. For God’s sake we can’t not quantify the service they are rendering to humanity. Anyone who has been sick before and got treated well in the hospital will appreciate what am saying here. Honestly after God Doctors are next. And we must not forget that Doctors too are humans. We must also not forget that what they are not fighting for themselves alone. They are also fighting for the improvement of the health sector generally.
The Nigerian Doctors deserve better treatment. They don’t deserve to be treated in lesser way than their counterparts in the rest of the world. Giving that their service is highly and unquantifiably essential to humanity they deserve to be adequately compensated. Why should some people – with no meaningful contributions to the development of the nation – be earning fat salaries and robust allowances for no reason other than the fact that they are in government while those who render essential services to the nation are poorly paid? This is absurd! 122
Like one bishop said last week; ‘as long as political appointees continue to earn heavy salaries and mountainous allowances so long will there continue to be agitations from members of the critical sectors of the country for higher pay’ I concur absolutely with this opinion because if we may ask; how really, does the monkey position her head that the gorilla doesn’t? And from time immemorial humanity had known that what is sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gander.
The failure of the Minister of health and the Finance Minister to meet with the representatives of the NMA for a scheduled meeting last week lends credence to how insensitive our government is to the plight of the people; knowing fully well that patients are dying in the hospitals due to this strike. When will the Jonathan administration start to be responsible and hearken to the voices of reason?
For God’s sake we have lost many lives to insecurity in this country. We cannot afford to be losing more lives in the hospitals. All this insensitivity and power show on the part of the government must stop forthwith. Government must address the demands of our Doctors now.

Email: Kolaodepeju@yahoo.com, SMS: 08023191891