Anambra State Council of Elders consisting of past governors, deputies, ministers and other statesmen in the state have waded into the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) and health workers’ strike in the state which is in its seventh month.
The Anambra State commissioner for Health, Prof Amobi Ilika, disclosed this to LEADERSHIP Weekend yesterday in an interview held in his office.
He said that the statesmen have been holding marathon meetings with the leadership of the NMA in the state and also the leadership of Medical and Health Workers to see how they can resolve the issues raised by the two associations to ensure that the hospitals are opened again.
Ilika said that he is hopeful that the elders’ intervention will bring back the striking medical and health workers in the state, who are pushing for the implementation of a new salary scale for its members.
He called on the doctors and other health workers in the state to remember their calling, “What they do is a vocation, it is not like the regular jobs. Their calling is to save lives, and they must remember this. Our state is poor, and this is also affecting our governor. You see it from how he lives, the cars he drive and others.”
“This state inherited a lot of retirees from the Old Anambra State, and the governor has been paying these people. It is a magic that he is not owing any worker in the state, and also not owing any bank. He does not believe in taking loans and putting the state into debt.
“It must be noted that the doctors are not on strike because they are being owed, as a matter of fact, the government does not owe them. The same people who are going on strike today should be grateful to the governor who came and paid salary arrears owed them by two previous administrations,” Ilika said.
LEADERSHIP learnt that the medical and health workers have been offered 40percent salary increase, while the medical doctors have been offered 50percent. Investigation showed that the health workers have accepted the 40percent on the grounds that negotiation must continue; a condition the governor rebuffed.?