Vehicular movements at the Idi-Araba in Lagos was nearly brought to a standstill following the activities of members of the Lagos State Chapter of the Nigerian Medical Association who on Monday morning staged a protest at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital.
They are protesting the sacking of 16,000 resident doctors in the country by the Federal Government.
The State Chairman of the association, Dr. Tope Ojo, who addressed journalist in LUTH, said that the sack of resident doctors in all Federal teaching hospitals in the country would lead to imminent collapse of the health sector.
“The immediate reversal of the sack of all the 16,000 resident doctors is the minimal demand for us to resume talks with the Federal Government.
“It is not acceptable to us and we will do all we can to defend our profession.They did it to ASSU, they signed several agreement with ASSU and did not fulfill it. They say they have met 90 per cent if our demands, it is not true. We will not relent until we have put things in place in our hospitals,” he said.
Resident doctors are specialist doctors in training in teaching hospitals in Nigeria.
It would be recalled that the Federal Government issued a directive on August 14, that residency training programme for doctors in its tertiary hospital be suspended.
The doctors who wore white lab coats were carrying different placards with inscriptions such as ‘Sack of 16,000 resident doctors, Death Sentence for Nigerians!,’ ‘Sack Ebola not Doctors,’ ‘Sack Boko Haram not Doctors,’ ‘Sack Chukwu not Doctors!’No to Casualisation of Doctor.’
Ojo called for the immediate removal of the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, whom they alleged to have misled the President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.
“We are aware that this is an attempt by the minister to casualise doctors employment in Nigeria as Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola has done in Lagos State. We will resist it. The president has been given a wrong counsel, no nation can survive by throwing away it’s specialist doctors,” he said.
