Posted on: Wed 27-09-2017

The ailing nation Nigeria has been grappling with a circle of strikes in the last couple of months. Need not bother you with the litany of their demands, rather the dimension taken by the consequent strike action. The strike by the amorphous unregistered union, JOHESU – Joint Health Sector Unions has taken a different dimension from the normal industrial action. Strike is simply put: “a refusal to work organized by a body of employees as a form of protest, typically in an attempt to gain a concession or concessions from their employer”. What do we have in the case of the ongoing strike by JOHESU? Activities that are devoid of any iota of civility, flagrant disregard for constituted authorities, actions that are completely alien to due process, to mention a few. From unlawfully detaining the Chief Medical Director and his management team in the University College hospital, Ibadan to the forceful locking up of laboratories, pharmacies, wards, to mention a few. What an anathema?

The case in Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital (ISTH), Irrua is particularly disturbing and Nigerians of good conscience must stand up to be counted. This piece is not dedicated to determining the legality of the strike, but to say, when you declare a strike, as a responsible union, you are expected to have a convincingly overwhelming followership of your members. This is however not the case. After declaring the infamous strike that didn’t go down well with majority of the members, what did we have? Some few members of JOHESU masquerading as ‘strike enforcers’ invaded the public hospital beating up some of their members who were still working without prompting. It is no news that ISTH, Irrua is a centre for diagnosis and treatment of Lassa fever; At the Lassa fever institute, the strike enforcers forced patients with the deadly disease out of the wards, beat up the scientific officer on duty and in the process spilled some blood samples that have tested positive to the highly infectious virus. They moved into other wards in the hospital, had fisticuffs with one Matron, locked up some offices and chased away the women who were cooking in the kitchen leaving the food being cooked to go down the drain. The attempt by the Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee (CMAC), Dr Ovienria Wilson (a man with a contagious humility) to verbally address the strike enforcers and advise them against the implication of their actions was interpreted by them as assault. While not necessarily joining issues with then, it's important to state that Dr Ovienria Wilson never at anytime assaulted anyone; preliminary investigations by the hospital management, the Nigerian Police and the DSS has shown that no case of assault ever happened.

However, we know that the attention-seeking members of JOHESU will stop at nothing to advance their ostentatious desires. The lies are perhaps to distract attention from their baseless agitations. This should not bother the public, as falsehood has always been their stock-in-trade! One of them even said: “anything is fair in war”. They however forget that a strike action is no war, even if it can be likened to one, it should at best be a mental war fought intellectually by engaging relevant stakeholders with unassailable facts. What an anathema?

It beats the imagination of watchers that the Union is so amorphous to the extent that Pharmacists have been sandwiched into the same union with cleaners. The amalgamation is faulty from day as it is founded on a single latitude: “Doctors are our common enemies”. It is even more worrisome that over 90% of their flimsy demands will only benefit less than 10% of their membership. Almost all the demands of the union revolve around seeking parity with medical and Dental doctors. However, they forget that parity and relativity were determined at the point of entry. School certificate, JAMB cut-off marks and content of curriculum for training already determined relativity at that point of entry. William Shakespeare did put it as follows: “Some are born great; some acquire greatness while others have greatness entrusted upon them”. What do we have today, a situation where those who were not born great have refused to acquire greatness, yet want greatness entrusted upon them! What an anathema?

One obvious fact is that the irrational demands by JOHESU is filled with false claims against doctors and against the Federal Ministry of Health. These include the false claims that only JOHESU members are threatened with the no work no pay rule. In fact, while it has not been implemented in any JOHESU strike by this government, it has been implemented in the NARD strike of September to October 2016. Till date, resident doctors in UBTH are yet to be paid for the period they were on strike last year.  Also, it is not true that all demands by NARD were granted. In fact,  government has never granted all demands by doctors.

Let us not also forget that the Goodluck Jonathan government sacked all striking doctors at one time, and the erstwhile military government of Mohamadu Buhari also sacked and arrested striking doctors in the past and proscribed the association. JOHESU has never suffered such fates yet claim bias in favour of doctors. The Hon Minister of labour also outlined the falsehood peddled by JOHESU who lied that the Hon Minister was not willing to meet with them when it was they JOHESU that did not keep the early appointment given to them."

Needless to say, when you go on strike, the purpose is to draw the attention of your employer(s) to your plight and not to destroy the system from which you earn your daily bread. Have we lost our moral compass? Do we really need this array of support staff to run the health sector? Do you really have to enforce strikes? It is simply a case of “if your presence is of no value, then your absence will not be a minus”. What has hit them so hard is the situation they must have come to embrace, which is: the hospitals still run in their absence.

Painfully, the institutions in question are public institutions and Government and her agents must therefore rise to the challenge, develop the courage to enforce laws and give protection to those who elect to perform their legitimate duties. We call on the law enforcement agencies to provide protection for doctors and other hospital staff who are not on strike to continue to render services and avoid needless loss of lives. The government should also promulgate policies and Laws that will prevent unscrupulous strike enforcers from locking up government properties and sabotaging health equipment. It is generally believed that when government becomes more alive to her responsibilities, they will act in a manner to avoid the neo-tyrannical tendencies of needless strikes and those who engage in them!

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