Nigeria: Medical Doctors in Bayelsa Insist On 100 Percent Salary Payment

Medical doctors in the employ of the Bayelsa State government are insisting on embarking on strike if the government failed to pay them100 per cent of their salary.

Workers in the state are owed about five-month salaries.

The government is set to pay half of February salary, Monday, as part of agreement it reached with the state branch of the Nigerian Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress.

The workers will continue to receive half of their monthly salaries until the state's economy, which is affected by the global drop in oil prices, improves.

"As the situation is, there is nothing we can do than to accept it," the NLC Chairman in the state, John Indiomu, had told PREMIUM TIMES.

But the Nigerian Medical Association in the state has distanced itself from the agreement the government reached with workers.

"We've made it very clear that we are asking for 100 per cent of our salary, and not 50 per cent," the Chairman of NMA in Bayelsa, Israel Jeremiah, told PREMIUM TIMES.

"We haven't moved away from the ultimatum we had given, and if by the 27 June our demands are not made we will proceed on the strike.

"I want to make it clear that NMA is not a part of NLC. We are not members of NLC, and we have not empowered NLC to negotiate on our behalf. So, if NLC has reached any agreement with the government, that is their cup of tea."

Mr. Jeremiah, who said his association had so far had a "chat" with the head of civil service in state on the issue, said doctors in the state were not convinced to buy into the government argument of economic hardship.

"The government has not been transparent in its dealings, and they have not managed to convince us that they cannot pay. When they bring the truth to the fore, then we can begin to discuss. But right now they are sticking to half-truths and sometimes outright falsehood," Mr. Jeremiah said.

The Commissioner for Information in Bayelsa, Jonathan Obuebite, told PREMIUM TIMES that the state government wasn't aware that the doctors rejected government offer to pay half of workers' salary.

"To the best of my knowledge there has been no formal communication (between NMA and the government on this matter)," Mr. Obuebite said.

"For them to have said that they have rejected the agreement the NLC had with the state government shows that they have not engaged the government, or else they would have said they have rejected the offer that government has given to them."

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