Members of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Abia State Chapter, barricaded the entrance gate to the Abia Government House, Umuahia, the state capital to protest the 24-month salary arrears allegedly owed medical and non-medical staff of the Abia State University Teaching Hospital (ABSUTH) Aba, by the state government.
The doctors who came out in their numbers were also protesting 13 months of arrears owed to doctors and other staff of the state Health Management Board (HMB).
The doctors from different parts of the state were said to have converged on the premises of the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Umuahia, before proceeding to the Government House gate.
The medical workers while on the march chanted solidarity songs to depict the mood of the group and as well calling on the state government to do the needful.
They also carried placards with different inscriptions such as: ‘Doctors’ lives matter,’ ‘Our salary is our entitlement,’ ‘2 years without salary ‘no be jokes,’ ‘Man’s inhumanity to man,’ among others.
Chairman of the NMA in the state, Dr. Isaiah Abali, who led the procession, said doctors in the employ of the State Government were passing through hell following many months of unpaid wages.
Abali decried the condition of the affected doctors, many of whom he said, “no longer meet their daily needs.”
The NMA chairman expressed sadness over the inability of the state government to clear the backlog of salary arrears of doctors.
According to him, contrary to the allegation by government officials, the protest had no political undertones whatsoever. This is even as he asked the state government to stop giving excuses and clear the outstanding arrears of the health workers.
NMA had towards the end of last year threatened to cripple the entire health sector of the state until the government cleared the salary arrears.
The medical body also declared an indefinite strike in both public and private hospitals in the state but despite the threats, the government is yet to meet the demands of the doctors.
Reacting to the protest, Abia State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Barr. Eze Chikaamnayo, in a statement, described the protesters as some self-serving politicians masquerading as doctors under the aegis of the Nigerian Medical Association, Abia State and ABSUTH.
According to him, between 2015 when Governor Okezie Victor Ikpeazu took office to date, a total of N11,444,043,333 (Eleven billion, four hundred and forty-four million, forty-three thousand and three hundred and thirty-three Naira only) had been paid to doctors in ABSUTH.
As at 2015, when this administration was just three months, it paid the doctors 11 months’ salaries in bulk from the backlog that had been accumulated.
He said the doctors were later to advance their three demands to include the construction of the deplorable ABSUTH Road, the purchase of vital equipment, and payment of salaries. The governor acceded to their demands.
“First, he completely reconstructed the ABSUTH Road with rigid pavement technology thus permanently solving the perennial problem of access to ABSUTH. Secondly, Governor Ikpeazu provided two (2) container loads of equipment and substantially solved the problem as presented. Thirdly, the government started the regular payment of salaries to the doctors in ABSUTH until, unfortunately, the sudden advent of the Covid- 19 pandemic, ENDSARS and sit at homes with its attendant economic setbacks.”
The commissioner further revealed that the doctors after being paid, with a promise to resume work and help revive the ailing parastatal have abstained from work more than 70 percent of the months.
He described the doctors’ absence from their duty posts as dereliction of duty which is “a clear breach of mutual agreements they entered into with government and an act of deliberate mischief aimed at instigating dispute purely to cast aspersions on government for political purposes.
He also revealed that “just a few days ago, government yet again provided (N420 million ) four hundred and twenty million naira, “representing three months of the salary arrears they mostly did not work for.
“By refusing to allow forensic audit for staff while latching in on legalistic posturing to strangle ABSUTH despite the billions of naira already expended in equipment, access roads, and servicing of accumulated salaries predating this government, the public is hereby implored to hold the political Abia NMA responsible while resisting the futile attempts of some self-serving ABSUTH doctors who should be held to account over the intractable challenges of ABSUTH.”
The commissioner further alleged that some members of the Abia NMA are in cahoots with one of the governorship candidates to cause civil unrest under the pretence of ABSUTH and doctors’ strikes ahead of the upcoming elections. “That is why they are bent on brigandage despite the honest, concerted efforts of the government to address the issues they raised.
“Government is, therefore, left with no other option than to activate the relevant clauses relating to no work, no pay as enshrined in their contract to recover the funds wrongly paid for the period of 43 months.”
Also reacting, the Director of Strategic Engagement, Abia State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Campaign Council, Chief John OKIYI Kalu, on Saturday called on the people of the state to demand a factual response from the NMA on the lingering dispute between doctors and the state government.
Okiyi-Kalu who was speaking on the demand by doctors under the Hospital Management Board (HMB) to be paid 13 months arrears and equally the demand of doctors working with Abia State University Teaching Hospital (ABSUTH) for 22 months arrears, said that facts have shown that since the inception of the Ikpeazu’s administration in 2015, the medical doctors have been on strike for 35 months.
He questioned the moral right the doctors have to demand such payments when facts and figures at the disposal of the government which according to him were listed indisputably by the state Commissioner for Information, Eze Chikamnayo show that they do not merit what they are demanding.
Okiyi-Kalu urged the Abia people to eschew all forms of political gimmicks and question some abnormalities in the Abia health sector causing the conflict stressing that every conflict should end in permanent solutions to society’s challenges including the ongoing one between Abia Government and NMA.
Okiyi-Kalu said that the root of the current wage management challenge in HMB and ABSUTH is traceable to 2015.
He attested to a meeting between Governor Okezie Ikpeazu who was new in office and management and union leaders from ABSUTH at the government house in Umuahia.
According to him, the meeting was called to stave off a planned strike action by the doctors and the crux of their presentation to the governor was simply that he cleared the arrears of salary owed them and they would from thenceforth make revenue to fund their regular salary payment.
Okiyi-Kalu said that they also requested support with more modern equipment for their operations and later in the life of the administration asked for ABSUTH road to be fixed, which according to him were all granted by the governor.
Okiyi-Kalu said that the painful part of the whole thing was that despite the governor’s earlier efforts, privates clinics of doctors were booming, and rather than generate more revenue to at least pay themselves, their IGR continued to dwindle from what it was in 2015 till date, as they racked up 35 months of strike without work yet are making demands that the government must pay them for those months they were on strike.
“I simply want to invite Abians to dispassionately discuss this issue of taking a salary for work not done and still demanding more while at the same time strengthening your private clinic.”
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