FG: Medical Doctors To Call Off Strike Today... Strike Continues, FG Unserious and Insincere- NMA - NewsRescue.com

July 14, 2014

By Ibrahim Olalekan

The Nigerian Medical Association has denied a report published on The Guardian Newspaper website http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/news/national-news/170456-doctors-will-call-off-strike-on-monday-says-health-minister that it is set to call off its on-going two weeks strike today.

The online report quoted the Minister of Health, Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu, to have said that the nationwide strike called by medical doctors on July 1 would be called off beginning from today.

Refuting the claim on its official twitter page, the Medical Association advised Nigerians to ignore the announcement made by the Minister and urged media organizations to get facts right before posting information to the public so as not to mislead them.

The leadership of the Medical Association disclosed via its twitter account that the story published by the Guardian does not in any way relates to the Nigerian Medical Association but the wish of the Minister.

“The statement is credited to the Minister, not traceable to Nigerian Medical Association’s leadership in any form. The #NMAStrike was declared at an Emergency Delegates Meeting and only at such meeting can the strike be called off”, NMA said.

The online report had claimed that the demands of the striking doctors have been addressed, and that government in the interest of the public has accepted to grant the doctors the outstanding demands.

These, according to the report published on The Guardian Newspaper include the signing of a fresh Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) to state that the FG will no longer stop skipping, and that no medical doctor or House Officer should be barred from belonging to any medical association.

The Minister was also quoted to have said thus: “At the end of meeting which lasted for 10 hours, another MOU was signed Friday. As I speak with you, the Federal Government has met its own side of the MOU and it is expected that the members of NMA would from today begin to respond and attend to all emergency cases in public hospitals in the spirit of this understanding. It is expected that the NMA will call off the strike after its emergency delegates’ meeting scheduled for next Monday July 7th 2014”.

Disproving the report, the Medical Association mentioned that negotiations and consultations are on-going and an Emergency Delegates Meeting shall be convened when a presentable report is available.

It also maintained its stand that until the association sees the level of seriousness and sincerity from the Federal Government, the strike continues.