* Govt accuses medics of blackmail
Members of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Abia State Chapter, barricaded the entrance gate to the Abia Government House, Umuahia, the State capital to protest the 24-month salary arrears allegedly owed medical and non-medical staff of the Abia State University Teaching Hospital (ABSUTH), Aba, by the government.
The doctors, who came out in their numbers, were also protesting 13 months of salary arrears owed them, and other staff of the State Health Management Board (HMB).
The doctors from different parts of the State reportedly converged on the premises of the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Umuahia, before proceeding to the Government House gate.
The medical workers, while on the march, chanted solidarity songs to depict the mood of the group, as well calling on the government to do the needful.
They also carried placards with different inscriptions such as: ‘Doctors’ lives matter,’ ‘Our salary is our entitlement,’ ‘2 years without salary ‘no be joke,’ ‘Man’s inhumanity to man,’ among others.
Chairman of the NMA in the State, Dr. Isaiah Abali, who led the procession, said doctors in the employ of the State Government are passing through hell following many months of unpaid wages.
Abali decried the condition of the affected doctors, several of whom, he said, “no longer meet their daily needs.”
The NMA chairman expressed sadness over the inability of the State government to clear the backlog of salary arrears of doctors.
According to him, contrary to the allegation by government officials, the protest had no political undertones whatsoever. This is even as he asked the state government to stop giving excuses and clear the outstanding arrears of the health workers.
NMA had, towards the end of last year, threatened to cripple the entire health sector of the State until the government cleared the salary arrears.
The medical body also declared an indefinite strike in both public and private hospitals in the State, but the government is yet to meet their demands.
State government reacts
Reacting to the protest, the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Eze Chikamnayo, described the protesters as some self-serving politicians masquerading as doctors under the aegis of the Nigerian Medical Association, Abia State and ABSUTH.
According to him, between 2015 when Governor Okezie Victor Ikpeazu took office to date, a total of N11, 444, 043, 333 had been paid to doctors in ABSUTH.
“As at 2015, when this administration was just three months, it paid the doctors 11 months’ salaries in bulk from the backlog that had been accumulated.”
“The doctors were later to advance their three demands to include the construction of the deplorable ABSUTH road, purchase of vital equipment, and payment of salaries. The governor acceded to their demands.
“First, he completely reconstructed the ABSUTH road with rigid pavement technology thus permanently solving the perennial problem of access to ABSUTH. Secondly, Governor Ikpeazu provided two (2) container loads of equipment and substantially solved the problem as presented. Thirdly, the government started the regular payment of salaries to the doctors in ABSUTH until, unfortunately, the sudden advent of the Covid- 19 pandemic, ENDSARS and sit at homes with its attendant economic setbacks.”
The commissioner further said that the doctors, after being paid, promised to resume work and help revive the ailing parastatal, but have abstained from work more than 70 percent of the months.
He described the doctors’ absence from their duty posts as dereliction of duty, which, according to him, is “a clear breach of mutual agreements they entered into with government and an act of deliberate mischief aimed at instigating dispute purely to cast aspersions on government for political purposes.”
He also said that “just a few days ago, government yet again provided N420 million, “representing three months of the salary arrears they mostly did not work for.”
He continued: “By refusing to allow forensic audit for staff while latching in on legalistic posturing to strangle ABSUTH despite the billions of naira already expended in equipment, access roads, and servicing of accumulated salaries predating this government, the public is hereby implored to hold the political Abia NMA responsible while resisting the futile attempts of some self-serving ABSUTH doctors who should be held to account over the intractable challenges of ABSUTH.”
The commissioner further alleged that some members of the Abia NMA are in cahoots with one of the governorship candidates to cause civil unrest under the pretence of ABSUTH and doctors’ strikes ahead of the upcoming elections.
“That is why they are bent on brigandage despite the honest, concerted efforts of the government to address the issues they raised.
“Government is, therefore, left with no other option than to activate the relevant clauses relating to no-work, no-pay as enshrined in their contract to recover the funds wrongly paid for the period of 43 months.”
“I simply want to invite Abians to dispassionately discuss this issue of taking salary for work not done and still demanding more while at the same time strengthening your private clinic.”