The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has
rejected the new memorandum of understanding (MoU) presented by the federal
government to end its ongoing strike.
On August 1, resident doctors embarked on a strike over the
alleged failure of the federal government to implement an agreement bordering
on salaries and allowances.
Chris Ngige, minister of labour and employment, had dragged
the association before the national industrial court over the strike.
The Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), on Friday, led the
resident doctors to a meeting summoned at the instance of President Muhammadu
Buhari to resolve the nationwide strike.
Speaking with journalists on Sunday after the closed-door
meeting with representatives of the federal government, in Abuja, Okhuaihesuyi
Uyilawa, NARD national president, said he could not sign the MoU as a result of
an undisclosed clause.
“We rejected the MoU; we didn’t sign it because we feel we
are being punished for the failures of those in government,” he said.
He said the nationwide strike would continue and the
association would proceed with the court case.
He, however, added that NARD leadership has to present the
new MoU to its members before he could sign the document.
On his part, Ngige said that all other unions in the
negotiation including the NMA and the Medical and Dental Consultants of Nigeria
have signed the new agreement.
The minister noted that the meeting did not discuss the
issue of ‘No Work No Pay’, but that all parties at the meeting agreed to an
out-of-court settlement.
He added that the federal government will begin
implementation of the MoU on Monday.
“The meeting agreed
that we need to let this matter. Therefore, the Budget Office of the federation
should start from the 2021 service vote to start paying. And if we have any
leftovers, we roll it into the 2022,” Ngige said.
“Coming to hazard allowance, everybody agreed that the
discussion is still ongoing and therefore government wants to finish it up.
”We agreed with NMA position to us that they don’t want to
discuss holistically anymore as an association and that they have their own
peculiarities that are not same with other health workers.
“We are going to do two meetings, one for NMA and affiliates
and one for JOHESU. But we are taking the meetings concurrently so that we
don’t run into troubled quarters. We are starting next week.”
Ngige said the NMA has been directed to submit a written
position on the controversial withdrawing of doctors under the National Youth
Service Corps (NYSC) and house officers from the scheme of service to point out
the anomaly in the circular.
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