ABEOKUTA—THE National Association of Government General Medical and Dental Practitioners, NAGGMDP, has issued a 21-day ultimatum to 13 state governments over the backlog of unpaid salaries to members, threatening to cripple health care services if the affected governments failed to met its demand.
Speaking through its National President, Dr Nurud-Din Akindele, at a briefing in Abeokuta, Ogun State, the doctors said the affected states owing between two and eight months salaries included Abia, Anambra, Bayelsa, Ebonyi, Ekiti, Enugu, Kogi, Ondo, Nasarawa, Osun, Oyo and Plateau states.
The association also threw its weight behind the action of Soccio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, which dragged governors owing workers’ salaries before the International Court of Justice, ICC, at the Hague. Akindele, flanked by the Publicity Secretary and Acting General Secretary of the association, Dr Isiaka Adekunle and Dr Olufemi Oroge, respectively, also appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari, to compel the states to pay their workers, saying it was callous for any state to owe its workers.
He decried the poor state of health sector in the country, saying “we openly declare our support for SERAP and will partner with them in their bid to make all states owing salaries to face the ICC just as we will be willing to supply intrinsic information.
It is criminal, callous and wicked for any state to owe its workforce.” The president contended that the healthcare delivery system which began from the primary health care to secondary and tertiary health system had been abused, saying that the country could be in “a mess” due to neglect of the first two tiers. According to him:
“All states in Nigeria are guilty of very poor budgetary allocation to health sector.
Even the little amount in the budgets for health is not always released to the extent that the performance of some of them is between 2% and 5% annually. Instead of building over 100 new primary health facilities to augment existing ones, we believe that strengthening existing primary health care centres have greater value for health care delivery that white elephant projects.
”Making existing primary health care systems better will allow the pyramid of health care delivery which is primary, secondary then tertiary stand upright with better service delivery.
“Any true effort to improve the Nigerian health sector must take cognizance of the tripod that stands successful health care delivery as a pyramid- primary down, secondary middle and tertiary apex for improved and successful health care delivery.
The danger of not paying doctors is that the impoverished prevailing situation due to owed debt of salaries will increase the health problems of the citizens. Due to this humiliation, the doctor must still see the patient and will definitely not be performing at his best with the possibility of exposing.”
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