Nigeria Content Online

In one breath there is something to be said for a
politician who, only a few months to a re-election bid, is willing to
annoyevery possible section of the electorate – okada riders,

Lekki residents, market women, small business
owners and now doctors. However,there is also something to be said
about governance by the will of the people – that path between the
governed and the governor.

Under this arrangement, the leader is not an
all-wise sovereign, whose every word will be unquestioned, whose
decisions haveto be accepted for their wisdom and where his will is
resisted by the people, the people are to be treated with disdain.

The recent state government order that medical and
dental officers under the Lagos State government, who have been on
strike,should resume work or be summarily dismissed and replaced
immediately brings to mind something of this trend as noticed with
Governor Babatunde Fashola; a manwho ordinarily had delivered
impressive results.

The strike has been on for about three weeks over
the non-implementation of agreements reached between the Lagos chapter
ofthe National Association of Resident Doctors and the state government
on the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure and other arrears withheld
from January 2010. Thenthere is the dismissal of the last chairman,
their union dues and what they call “over taxation”.

Negotiations, as led by the commissioner for
health, Jide Idris, haven’t made any headway. “Negotiations involve
figures,”says Dr. Saliu Oseni, the president of the Lagos State
Teaching Hospital chapter of the Association of Resident Doctors. “But
they are not negotiatingwith us. The governor has said they will pay
come January, but what we are saying is that ‘how much are you paying
come January’, ‘how are you going tohandle the arrears’, and that they
should give us a written document to that effect.” Into this mix comes
the state government’s order to resume last Monday, a posture that is
certain to complicate the crisis. TheLagos State information
commissioner said that any doctor who did not answer the directive will
be seen to have abandoned duty post – codeword for ‘fired’;but any
responsible democratic government knows that such threats are only
counter-productive, especially in a country that desperately needs as
manyqualified doctors as it can get in public service.

The Lagos government has an attitude that suggests
where it is convinced of the rightness of its action and perhaps
because of the goodwill it enjoys, the people must sit down and take it
– and be grateful while doing so. Fortunately for the people, this is
in fact a democracy. A leader might passionately disagree with the
people, but in so as far as they elected him and gave him the powers
that he has, he serves at their pleasure.

The Friday before this, the state’s intransigence
was on display when the National Industrial Court had to strike out the
matter between the government and the doctors based on a notice of
discontinuance moved by the counsel to the state government. A
resolution was said to be in progress since one of the doctors’ demands
that two cases against them be withdrawn was almost granted. However,
just as the presiding judge was about to announce the withdrawal of the
second case against the Medical Guild, two lawyers asked to be joined
as defendants on behalf the National Association of Government General
Medical and Dental Practitioners (NAGGMDP), another association of
medical workers.

This incensed the presiding judge, Babatunde Adejumo, since the striking doctors had
agreed to resume work and reopen discussions with the government once
the cases were withdrawn.

“Doctors owe a moral duty to the society,” he
reminded the litigants “(And) government owes a duty to the citizens.
There must be equilibrium between the two.” The relationship between
governor and governed is not master-servant, no matter how surrounded
it is by luxury and the adulation at Government House.

It is our hope that Governor Fashola continues to
lead Lagos into the future with the same strength of vision and
character that he has exhibited thus far, but any trace of tyranny is
disappointing. Especially when what is at stake is the quality of
healthcare – already deplorable – that Lagosians will receive if the
present crop of doctors are replaced with rookies unused to how
dysfunctional our public health system is.

Governor Fashola is on his way to losing the
goodwill of those he has chosen to lord it over if he doesn’t take to
heart the words of that wise judge. It is the fatal flaw of even the
greatest of men.