National Association of Resident Doctors ( NARD) has urged its members to ignore the propaganda being deployed by government to break the ongoing strike action by doctors, saying the strike is fully on course.
Vice President, NARD , Dr Oluwaseun Adebayo who gave the directive accused the government of gambling with the lives of its citizens
Despite that the aggrieved doctors and Ministers of Labour and Health Emeka Nwogu and Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu met last weekend, Dr Adebayo said the meeting was deadlock.
He said, “none of our demands were met. Instead, they went about saying the doctors will call off strike today. That is rather unfortunate. The government in its usual manner is being funny and trivialising very important issue that has to do with lives.
” They were not the ones that called the strike and they are not the ones to call it off. The National President of NARD and members of his executive through a circular signed by them were the ones that called the strike and they are the ones that will call it off through same process.”
He however, called on members and the public to ignore the government, adding that if at all the strike would be called off, the association will make it known to Nigerians.
He said the members were meeting at different places to fine-tune the strike, and that the strike would continue as long as the government refused to accede to their demands.
He listed the grievances of the association to include flaws in the payment of salary since the introduction of the Integrated Personnel Pay Roll and Information System( IPPIS) in June; failure to sponsor overseas clinical attachment for resident doctors and the government’s refusal to redeem the 10 percent allowance meant for health personnel.
The strike which enters the ninth day on Tuesday.
