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The labour minister, Chukwuemeka Wogu,
has called on resident doctors to end their ongoing strike, as the
federal government is committed to ensuring that their demands were
met. He made the appeal after a meeting between the Nigerian Medical
Association, the Federal Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Labour
and Productivity, which he hosted.

Mr Wogu said the
strike had taken a heavy toll on the health of the Nigerian masses. He
said the government had delivered on its promise to commence the
monthly payment of the new medical salary structure from last month. Mr
Wogu also revealed that a backlog of salary payments from February to
May has also been captured in the supplementary budget bill, though the
bill is still with the National Assembly.

“This is a total
package in excess of N74 billion and government has agreed that once
the supplementary budget is passed, the bulk money will be paid,” said
Mr Wogu. “I, therefore, implore the NMA as an umbrella body to
seriously prevail on resident doctors to suspend this action which has
caused untold hardship to Nigerians, as we are irrevocably committed to
ensuring that doctors get their entitlement.”

More worries

Omede Idris,
president of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), who was at the
meeting, said that the organisation was also worried about the
continued strike action.

He called on the
National Assembly to expedite action on the passage of the
supplementary appropriation bill, to restore peace in the health
sector, while insisting that it would be in the interest of humanity
and the nation for the resident doctors to consider the appeal by the
government and call off the strike.

Efforts to get John Aremu, the
president of Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors, to comment on
the development did not yield results as he did not respond to phone
calls.