Okungbowa Aiwerie, Asaba
DELTA State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa has urged Nigerian doctors to explore other ways of resolving industrial dispute instead of embarking on strikes.
Okowa spoke on Wednesday when he hosted officials of the Nigeria Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), led by its First Vice-President, Dr. Julian Ojebo, at the Government House in Asaba, the state capital.
The governor noted that doctors’ groups were not like other trade unions, adding that they must exercise restraint in embarking on strikes “because when doctors go on strike, the lives of people are in danger”.
He reminded the doctors that in the medical profession, they put the patients first before their personal interests.
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Okowa urged doctors to seek alternative ways to put pressure on government to meet their demands.
“I know that recently there have been a lot of issues between NARD and the Government of the Federation.
“I want to plead that we get things done through dialogue because many times we find ourselves in a situation where there is a temptation, like every other union, to go on strike. But there is a difference between doctors going on strike and every other union going on strike.
“When doctors go on strike lives are lost and they can’t be retrieved back when the strike is called off. Let us find a way to pile pressure on government to attend to our issues rather than going on strike,” he said.
Okowa stressed that the greatest impact of strikes was borne by the very poor in the society.
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