The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige has denied the propaganda by the striking members of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) that no doctor or health worker in Nigeria is owed monthly salary.
The minister, who made the revelation at the opening of the meeting of the Presidential Committee on Salaries with the leadership of the Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU), Tuesday, in Abuja, said the fumes from the propaganda machine of NARD were obfuscating the reality of the federal government’s efforts to re-position the health sector.
“NARD goes about telling Nigerians that government is owing them salaries and that government is not taking the problems in the health sector serious. But this is not true. It is incorrect. No doctor, nurse, pharmacist or any other health worker, including the driver is owed monthly salary. Government pays as and when due.
“The truth is that NARD doctors fail to tell Nigerians that their colleagues who are owed salaries are the ones illegally recruited and were therefore neither captured by the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation nor were their payments provided for by the Budget Office of the Federation.
“Monthly salaries are done as and when due for those legitimately employed by the Federal Government but not to those illegally employed and who need their appointments regularized and captured in the finances of government for payment. This takes a process which is not accomplished overnight.”
Ngige referred to the presidential waiver for employment into the critical Health and Defence Ministries in view of the general embargo on employment and assured that doctors illegally recruited would have their service regularised in due course.
The Minister however said that money which the federal government owed few doctors and other workers was the 2020 COVID-19 allowance, besides the arrears of the consequential adjustment of the National Minimum Wage and skipping allowance which cut across other sectors. He said work was in progress to clear this.
In his speech the Minister of State for Health, Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora said it was such a wrong time to go on strike, noting that despite financial constraints, government was committed to payment of salaries of doctors and health workers.
The Minister of State for Finance, Budget and Planning, Clement Agba rued the expanding budgetary expenditure of government even as revenue continues to dwindle. He added that government was doing its best and committed to workers welfare but certainly won’t continue to borrow to pay salaries.
President of JOHESU, Josiah Biobelemonye said his union was “the patient dog of the health sector” and pressed for the swift tackling of the challenges facing its members, to avoid forcing them to strike.
The meeting was ongoing at the time of filing this report.