28th August, 2017
The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) in Kogi has called on the State Government to redeem its promise by implementing the agreement entered by the two parties.
The state Chairman of NMA, Dr. Godwin Tijani, made the appeal in a statement in Lokoja on Monday.
However, Tijani threatened that his members would resume the suspended strike if the state government failed to fulfill the promises before September ending.
He said the fragile peace being enjoyed by health sector in the state might be plunged to another round of crisis if nothing was done to avert it.
The NMA had on June 22, suspended its then 18-day-old strike to pave way for resolution to enable the government meets her demands.
The association suspended the strike because the state government had met about 70 per cent of their demands and promised to address other outstanding issues before September.
The chairman said that the three months grace period would expire this September, but regretted that nobody has called NMA for any meeting.
He said that all efforts to meet with the state Commissioner for Health proved abortive.
“No concrete information from the government on Revised CONMESS, Promotion and Annual Stepping as demanded by the association.
“About eight of our members are still on the `uncleared list’ and have not been paid salary for several months.
“Underpayment still persists in spite several assurances from the government.
“How long do we wait for this to be corrected? Nobody should blame NMA for any round of strike as we have shown understanding with the government.
“We are appealing to the government to reciprocate the gesture to avoid crisis,” Tijani said.
He, however, assured that the association was still open to dialogue.
He said that the association would always project the government in a positive way, support her to succeed and improve the health indices of the people of Kogi.
“Our demands should be addressed to reduce the financial burden of what our members are passing through, September is here and no tangible effort had been made as regards NMA demands.
“We want a concrete commitment from the government by addressing these issues to ensure the industrial harmony enjoyed in the health sector is not truncated,” he said.