The outgoing Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HOS), Bukar Aji has called on members of the Nigerian Medical Association to resume work, describing the continued workers strike as a disservice to the nation.

He spoke in Abuja during the launching of two books about his life and leadership of the Federal Civil Service, titled: “A Quintessential Civil Servant,” and “The Challenges of Transforming the Civil Service.”

According to him: “The situation we are in today, is a situation that the Nigerian society recognizes who is actually a Nigerian…not only in the case of the insurgency of Boko Haram, but when the Ebola virus came, When do you then stand up for your nation? That’s the question everybody will ask.”

Bukar Aji added that: “Even in this time, the Nigeria Medical Association is still trying to sustain the strike; I think the answer is getting very clearer to Nigerians that they now know who are actually Nigerians and who are those who will stand for the nation at the time of need.”

He appealed to end the strike, saying: “I would like to use this medium as I’m bowing out to appeal to the Nigeria Medical Association to reconsider their stand and resume back to work before it is too late.”

Aji said all avenues have been deployed yet the matter is not resolved and the principal factor is for government to raise the bar of the entry point of doctors to grade level 13.

He lamented that, “What happened to the man that has to wait for ten years before he gets to grade level 10, we explained the revenue situation of the country, it is not as good as it use to be, the minister of finance told me that the figure we are giving about for personnel cost and over head cost of N1.8 trillion is not true, it’s now close to N2 trillion.”

Speaking on behalf of President Goodluck Jonathan, the Secretary of the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius commended the wide reaching reforms put in place by the outgoing HOS, describing him as a hero of public service reforms.

He urged all civil servants to embrace the legacy of the outgoing HOS and be agents of reform.

Also in his remarks as chairman of the occasion, former minister of Defence, Yayale Ahmed challenged civil servants to think outside the box and use their knowledge in advising the political leaders of the country.