NARD strike: There should be limit to politicking

By Dr Paul John

SIR: Common knowledge should have taught our so-called leaders that shouting at a crying child without attending to the child’s needs does not solve the problem because peace is not the absence of war but the presence of justice.

Few weeks before Nigeria recorded the first Covid-19 case, the minister boasted severally that Nigeria was ready to fully handle Covid-19 cases. As at the time he repeatedly boasted that we were ready for handling the pandemic, the whole of Southeast and South-South had one testing centre at Irrua, Edo State. Other regions were even worse off except probably the Southwest and North Central because of Lagos and Abuja respectively.

Now, Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) is asking for part of what should have constituted the minister’s claim of “being ready to handle the Covid-19 pandemic in a country” and all he can do is to threaten to sack them when he should have been the one tendering his resignation letter for deceiving the people that the health ministry was ready to handle the pandemic.

NARD is demanding that adequate PPE should be provided to Nigerian doctors and other health workers in order to fight the pandemic. My people say that it is only a tree that will “hear” of its planned death(cutting) and will still stand. We have seen and heard of the number of deaths recorded in countries with most developed healthcare system let alone Nigeria that ranked 187th by the World Health Organisation (WHO) among 195 member states on health issues. It seems that being sacked while alive is better for doctors than for them to intentionally embark on a suicide mission of treating suspected Covid-19 patients without adequate PPE. I don’t think there is a motivational speech that will make a goat accept a duel with a lion or that will make a sane person stand on the path of a moving train.

Second, the government has repeatedly claimed that it has paid the insurance companies for the Life Insurance cover of the health workers. Regrettably, this claim cannot be confirmed as none of the families (beneficiaries) of the frontline medical doctors who died in the course of handling the pandemic has either been contacted by the so-called insurance firms nor any money paid to them. Is it not preposterous for the Ministries of Health and that of Labour to claim that it does not have the list of affected doctors? Is asking for evidence of the agreed Life Insurance cover for the frontline health workers enough reason for the minister to threaten to sack resident doctors?

Third, NARD is demanding implementation of the agreed hazard allowance for the health workers involved in the fight against the pandemic. We are talking of five thousand naira (N5000). Yes, you read it right! Because of N5000, many doctors have contracted dreaded diseases while some have died in the course of handling their patients.

Fourth, on the issue of skipping arrears there is no way some health workers will be paid and resident doctors are not paid as even S.42 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic 1999 (as amended) abhors discrimination in its entirety. What is the flimsy excuse that federal ministries of Health and Labour are giving for not paying the resident doctors their skipping arrears? They claim that they are waiting for a ruling of an appeal still pending in the court. Nigerians can see that what is sauce for the goose is no longer sauce for the gander when it is the turn of the resident doctors.

Fifth, on the issue of differences in the salaries of doctors working with the federal and state governments, there is nothing to negotiate here since there is no disease called federal or state disease. Both doctors working with the federal and state governments face the same patients and occupational risks. They face same punitive measures if the management of the patient goes awry. So, why should there be a dichotomy in their salaries? If there is no discrepancy in the amount that they pay in renewing their annual practising licences, why should there be in the amounts they receive as salaries and wages?  Nigeria is the only country in the world where patriotism is interpreted as citizens forfeiting their rights while the leaders live in opulence and affluence because in saner climes, such a dichotomy in salaries and wages is unheard of.

If the government claims that this is not the right time for resident doctors to embark on a nationwide strike, then the government should realise also that this is not the right time to be insincere with the doctors.

•  Dr Paul John, Port Harcourt.