President of National Association of Resident Doctors, Dr. Uyilawa Okhuaihesuyi said the threat by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, to invoke the no-work-no-pay policy this week will not in any way compel members of the association to call off their ongoing strike.
The NARD president stated this on Sunday asking the minister to stop playing politics with medicine.
He said, “It’s quite shameful when our political leaders in power and a doctor try to mix politics with medicine.
“The issue here now is that the minister is trying to justify his failures in meeting our requirements in the entire ultimatum we signed with him over 117 days and he calling International Labour Organisation when he has not done the ones he ought to do.
“Was he not aware that we gave notice of the strike over 116 days? Was he not part of the people that signed the memorandum of action with us?
“We are not calling off the strike today (Monday). We are resolute in our decision on the strike. We want to stay on this until we achieve something.
“We want to achieve something meaningful that will change the narrative of the health sector.”
“We are aware of the implications of the threat but the strike continues. We want to create a new narrative to all the threats. You can’t be threatening somebody when you have not done your part”.
Recall that The Minister of Labour, Dr. Chris Ngige, had said “Next week, I’ll escalate this issue because reconciliation has failed”
Members of NARD had on August 2 commenced a nationwide industrial action and the resident doctors have blamed the Federal Government for the strike.
They accused the government of failing to implement the Memorandum of Action earlier endorsed by the two parties which necessitated the suspension of the NARD’s earlier strike action in April 2021.
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