Following the ongoing resident doctors’ strike, it has been reported that the Minister of State for Health, Dr Olorunnimbe Mamora, has disclosed that it was wrong for the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors to continue its strike despite the court order and the intervention of the President Muhammadu Buhari.
Disclosing this in an interview on Sunday, Mamora stated that, “For me personally, I consider it (continued strike) inappropriate particularly when the highest authority in the land, Mr President, has intervened and has pleaded with doctors to go back to work and continue with negotiations.”
He disclosed that, “People are dying and that is the truth. How do you bring back people who have passed on as a result of doctors not being at their duty posts? Some of these issues do not qualify for a national strike, as some of them are not national issues.”
He added that, “By virtue of ethics, our oath of office as doctors is to save lives; that is the primary duty of a doctor.”
Mamora made it known that, “The court has given a ruling and they (the resident doctors) still insist on not going back to work. That is not a fair situation. Though they have indicated that they want to appeal, which is not wrong, but at what cost?”
He continued that, “Engagement is still on and we will still invite them. All we can do is to continue to appeal that a strike during this period of a global pandemic and outbreaks of cholera and other diseases is not right.”
This is coming after the National Industrial Court in Abuja had on Friday ordered resident doctors to suspend the ongoing strike, which started on August 2.
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