The chairman of the Medical Guild, Lagos Chapter, Dr. Biyi Kufo, has appealed to the Lagos State government to pay the two-month withheld doctors salary. Dr. Kufo who spoke to news men during a press conference held at the Medical Guild Secretariat Lagos, expressed dismay that the salaries of doctors in Lagos State for August and September is up till now withheld as penalty for joining in the nationwide strike by the Nigerian Medical Association.

 

It would be recalled that doctors in public hospitals under the aegis of Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) embarked on a nationwide strike from the 1st of July to the 25th of August. Other states in the country had since paid their doctors for the period of the strike. The Lagos state government has however insisted on the ‘no work no pay’ policy.

 

But Dr. Kufo criticized the implementation of the policy saying it was selectively meted on doctors alone.

 

“The State’s No work, no pay policy is currently being applied to members of the medical guild alone. No other group that went on strike since 2012 have had this policy applied to them. The Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU) went on a six-month long national strike in 2013 and embarked on a local strike in June 2014. The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) participated in another long national strike in 2013. Workers in the judiciary, magistrates and members of the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) have all gone on strikes. All these groups have had their salaries paid in full,” he said.

 

Dr. Kufo also accused the Lagos state government of numerous unjust actions carried out against the Medical Guild in the past.

 

“The elections of the medical guild held in 2008 were disputed by the government. This has not happened before. In 2009, the then chairman of the Guild, Dr. Ibrahim Olaifa, who won the elections in 2008, was dismissed from service for allegedly addressing a press conference. The ensuing strike protesting this action resulted in the secretary of the Medical Guild at the time, Dr. Olayiwola Agara being beaten into a coma during a routine strike monitoring, and remained in the hospital for weeks.

 

“Based upon this fact, we have come to the conclusion that this administration hates doctors with a morbid passion.”

 

He said efforts by the association to resolve the matter did not yield any result.

 

“We sent letter to the governor and meetings were held with the Commissioner for Health, Dr Jide Idris but the matter still persists. A delegation of medical elders, led by Prof Michael Bankole of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) was pointless, the administration’s response to our efforts was the withholding of salaries for September 2014”, he added.

 

BY FRANKA OSAKWE