It is only in Nigeria that a common appointed minister is above the court of law. If it were not so, who is Mr. Onyebuchi Chukwu to disobey a court order, asking him to effect all the demands of NUMPTAM/JOHESU. Let the truth be told, their demand is just, fair and worthy. Why must other government workers skip grade level 11 and the minister gives autocratic orders that all other medical workers apart from physicians must not skip it? What manner of working practice is it that clinical specialist are not paid specialist allowance, when NMA members enjoy such? What outdated manner of man is the minister of health to give a directive that Chief Medical Directors of hospitals should be only from NMA, when DPT, Optometry and pharmacists are leading players in the field of medicine? While I do not make claims for the medical practitioners, I advocate for their rights been given to them. That only NMA members should be appointed as CMDs leaving other medical professions out amounts to saying only graduates of banking/finance should head the Central Bank of Nigeria, when there are graduates of accountancy and economics in the profession, or succinctly put; that only graduates of political science should hold political positions when they have partners in graduates of government and public administration. The position of a CMD is equivalent to chief executive officer and should be filled by any qualified medical practitioners, ditto commissioners and ministers of health. For a minister to flagrantly disobey a court order and gets away with it is another dent of the President Goodluck Jonathan administration. It goes to show that Mr. Jonathan day as a vice president were simply wasted years, since he could not learn the “rule of law” from President Musa Yaradua, which was the bench mark of that administration. For Christ sake, what manner of ministers do we have? Let someone tell Onyebuchi that we don’t have a minister of NMA but health. Can Mr. Jonathan be bold enough to sack this man who the medical workers have recommended his sack since last year? Can this man resign his position as a minister to allow a true health expert take over? With this medical strike and ASUU strike, a serious president would have asked both ministers to submit their resignation letters, but not Nigeria president. This is the price a leader pay when he leaves experts and technocrats to appoint political thieves in office. It is time Nigerians call the bluff off these physicians once and for all the way Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State did last year. It is time Nigerians tell them that they are like the gatemen in the various government ministries and should not use their pride to cause innocent Nigerians to die in the hospitals with no medical officer to attend to them. I feel their pains as they lie down in their various wards, praying for the strike to be called off. I have been in their shoes losing loved ones not because there are no physicians, but there was no medical lab scientist to carry out a test. I have been to the physiotherapist department in various Nigerian hospitals and see people wriggling in pains, mothers crying to have their husbands treated of strokes, children treated of ebbs palsy, facial nerve and numerous medical conditions, yet there was no hope as the DPTs are on strike. I have known an operation successfully carried out, but because of the absence of a nurse to take care of the patient; we lost him. This is the pain I feel. Pains that the medical workers don’t feel, as they forget the Hippocratic Oath the very minute they leave the medical college.
Posted on: Tue, 27 Aug 2013 20:21:00 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015