*No doctor, nurse, pharmacist, or any other health worker, including the driver is owed monthly salary. Government pays as and when due, says Sen. (Dr.) Chris Ngige, Honourable Minister for Labour and Employment

Isola Moses | 绿帽献妻

In what the Minister has described as 鈥榩ropaganda鈥� by the striking members of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), Sen. (Dr.) Chris Ngige, Honourable Minister for Labour and Employment, has declared that no medical doctor or health worker is owed a monthly salaries in Nigeria.

绿帽献妻 reports Sen. Ngige stated this position at the opening of the meeting of the Presidential Committee on Salaries with the leadership of the Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU), Tuesday, September 7, 2021, in Abuja, FCT.

Nigerian Resident聽Doctors still on strike

Charles Akpan, Deputy Director Press and Public Relations at the Ministry of Labour and Employment, in a statement Tuesday noted that the Minister clarified that 鈥渇umes from the propaganda machine of NARD were obfuscating the reality of the Federal Government鈥檚 efforts to re-position the health sector.

鈥淣ARD goes about telling Nigerians that government is owing them salaries and that government is not taking the problems in the health sector serious.

鈥淏ut this is not true. It is incorrect.鈥�

He further said: 鈥淣o doctor, nurse, pharmacist or any other health worker including the driver is owed monthly salary. Government pays as and when due

鈥淭he 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.

鈥淢onthly 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.

However, the statement noted Ngige said that the 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.

According to the Minister, work is in progress to clear this.

He blamed the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) and JOHESU for bringing segregation in the negotiation for the new hazard allowance which the Federal Government already budgeted the sum of N37.5billion for.

鈥淲e started joint negotiation to round off discussion and implement new hazard allowance as early as possible so as to stave off the current wolf-crying by doctors. They brought in segregation and couldn鈥檛 agree with JOHESU and both now want separate negotiations. Why then blame the government and make it an issue to strike for,鈥� stated the Minister.

Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora, Honourable Minister of State for Health, in his remarks at the forum, said it was such a wrong time to go on strike.

Mamora also noted that despite financial constraints, the Federal Government of Nigeria remains committed to payment of salaries of doctors and health workers.