Dogara meets with striking doctors, asks them to show leadership

SPEAKER of the House of Representatives, Honourable Yakubu Dogara, on Tuesday, urged all doctors and other stakeholders in the health sector to demonstrate the spirit of leadership, by focusing on how to come up with solutions to the issues that led to their strike, rather than dwell on the problems that led to it.

In a reconciliatory meeting called at the instance of the Speaker, with stakeholders from the Ministry of Health, Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) and the Ministry of Labour and Employment in attendance, Honourable Dogara implored them not to allow their decisions to be defined by issues that brought them to the table, but rather, to find solutions to the issues involved.

Present at the meeting which held at the National Assembly were the Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole; representative of the minister of Labour and Employment and permanent secretary of the ministry, the Executive Chairman of Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Committees, chief medical directors of Federal Medical Centres and other stakeholders.

Chairmen of the relevant House committees were also present.

The Speaker, in his address, said “I want to appeal to us to show leadership because leadership is essential in solving any problem. Leadership, therefore, means that your eyes are always on the solution and not the problems, because I believe that if we are leaders, in whatever situation we find ourselves, we should be able to invent a solution.”

Earlier, chairman of NARD had expressed gratitude for the intervention of the speaker in finding a solution to the issues.

Professor Adewole, in his remarks, assured the Speaker that the ministry was committed to respecting all agreements, not settlements, entered into by the relevant parties.

On his part, the Labour minister informed the speaker that they had come up with the causative factors of the strike as well as ways they could be addressed.

The chairman of RMAFC, Engr Elias Mbam, urged the stakeholders to be guided in addressing the pending issues in order not to create fresh ones, while adding that the agency would continue to facilitate whatever would bring calm to the health sector.