Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, has slammed the impending strike by local doctors. Following a meeting with the Association of Resi...
Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, has slammed the impending strike by local doctors.
Following a meeting with the Association of Resident Doctors, Medical and Dental Consultants Association in Government House, Benin City, he described such moves as “provocative, illegal, avoidable and unnecessary.”
“If you (doctors) have any grievances you are obliged by law, you are obliged by tradition, you are actually compelled by your own oath not to abandon your patients as if there is pleasure. The facts are not in dispute because doctors in the employment of Edo State Government are not staff of the Federal Government.
"The Federal Government has no hand in your employment, no hand in your promotion and they have no hand in your posting. How we find money to pay, the Federal Government has no hand in it.
"So, I believe therefore, that even if we are to talk in the context of employer-employee relationship, you are obliged by law to state the particulars of your grievances to your employer,” Oshiomhole said.
He added, “There is nothing in the convention or the law that allows you to simply walk out of your job. The fact that your colleagues under Federal employment had dispute and they sought meeting with the Minister of Health, those are meetings between your colleagues and the Federal Government.
"I expect that if you feel obliged to go on that strike, I think you should inform us that the strike is inevitable. I do understand the logic and essence of solidarity, but in this business, before you resort to solidarity action, people who are themselves directly involved in the dispute may choose on their own to first go on strike.”
He accused the medical practitioners of undermining life.
“When a doctor no longer bothers about the life of a patient, that is the beginning of the end. In Edo State, we will not submit to this blackmail.
"You are delivering essential services because of the nature of your work, you are not expected to go on strike. Let us realise that beyond naira and kobo, there is life. I simply don’t understand why the NMA wants to preside over mass death at the eve of Christmas. Even If you do not have other sentiments, on the mood of the Christmas, you choose to watch people die,” he said.
Following a meeting with the Association of Resident Doctors, Medical and Dental Consultants Association in Government House, Benin City, he described such moves as “provocative, illegal, avoidable and unnecessary.”
“If you (doctors) have any grievances you are obliged by law, you are obliged by tradition, you are actually compelled by your own oath not to abandon your patients as if there is pleasure. The facts are not in dispute because doctors in the employment of Edo State Government are not staff of the Federal Government.
"The Federal Government has no hand in your employment, no hand in your promotion and they have no hand in your posting. How we find money to pay, the Federal Government has no hand in it.
"So, I believe therefore, that even if we are to talk in the context of employer-employee relationship, you are obliged by law to state the particulars of your grievances to your employer,” Oshiomhole said.
He added, “There is nothing in the convention or the law that allows you to simply walk out of your job. The fact that your colleagues under Federal employment had dispute and they sought meeting with the Minister of Health, those are meetings between your colleagues and the Federal Government.
"I expect that if you feel obliged to go on that strike, I think you should inform us that the strike is inevitable. I do understand the logic and essence of solidarity, but in this business, before you resort to solidarity action, people who are themselves directly involved in the dispute may choose on their own to first go on strike.”
He accused the medical practitioners of undermining life.
“When a doctor no longer bothers about the life of a patient, that is the beginning of the end. In Edo State, we will not submit to this blackmail.
"You are delivering essential services because of the nature of your work, you are not expected to go on strike. Let us realise that beyond naira and kobo, there is life. I simply don’t understand why the NMA wants to preside over mass death at the eve of Christmas. Even If you do not have other sentiments, on the mood of the Christmas, you choose to watch people die,” he said.
