A member of the senate committee on health, Senator Margery Okadigbo, has advised striking doctors under the aegis of the Nigerian Medical Association to respect their Hippocratic Oath which they individually took, to save lives and call off their two-week old nationwide industrial action.

 

Okadigbo, who is representing Anambra North Senatorial District in the National Assembly, stated this during an interview on Saturday in Abuja, while briefing journalists over her planned constituency projects slated for Friday in Anambra state.

The senator, who is the widow of the late Senate President Chuba Okadigbo, asked the striking doctors to be reasonable with their demands because she usually feels bad whenever she recalled that her husband died during one of the strikes, about 11 years ago.

 

She said, “On the doctors strike, I have a personal experience on the issue of strike in the health sector. About 11 years ago, when my husband (the late Chuba Okadigbo) was sick and we had to take him to the hospital, we took him round three hospitals in Abuja here and he eventually gave up.

 

“It is a bit difficult to understand while someone who took an oath to save a life and failed to think about it but rather choose to go against that oath. For me it is personal but we can only appeal.

“We at the Senate Committee level had a meeting with them. Yes, some of their demands were reasonable. They need improved conditions of service, but some of the demands are a bit frivolous in my own opinion but we can only appeal that they should all come together and find a way to resolve the issue.

 

“People are dying daily as a result of the strike which part of the demands has to do with mundane things like justifying the need for better conditions of service because you spent more years in the University than other health workers. The NMA should be reasonable with their demands. ”

 

Okadigbo, who said she had attracted about five health centres to her senatorial districts among other projects, explained that no fewer than 100 widows and 600 other people will benefit from her empowerment programme which will be witnessed by Senate President, David Mark.