 Joining us now of ASUM is the President Association of Resident Doctors, Dr. Anua Ibe Arthur. Hello, Doctor. Good evening to you. Hello, Doctor Arthur. Good evening to you. Good evening. All right. Are you with us now? Yes, I'm with you. All right, Doctor. So, you heard about the Resident Doctors and their decisions to embark on a one-week warning strike because of the federal government. They claim that the federal government hasn't reached out or made any significant move while the first ultimatum lasted. So, let's get your thoughts on this, your take. Thank you very much for your question. We understand that the Assistant President of Resident Doctors and the coming to work on this issue by making an effort on the demand and the two weeks ultimatum over after we've given that national victory transmission. I understand that there are particularities to this, the issue of the brain drain and the anniversary by Hon. Ghani Johnson. Like, we were just coming up some patents in some quarter-particle agendas now. The particularity of this participation is something that's more acceptable, meaning that we have a lot of medical students. Okay, take for instance, a student that's serious in medical school and spends 10 years in medical school and the same person you may have gone for five years, may have spent 15 years of his life brain-treating and what's actually going to scare a lot of people from getting into the medical specialty and that's what caused a lot of brain drain to act in. We understand what has happened and what the Resident Doctors want and how to go about this same thing. The issue of remuneration is very pertinent. If you want to tackle brain drain, I think it's also important that you should also tackle the remuneration of Resident Doctors. What are the push and pull factors this has to be put into consideration. The working environment is also something that is not acceptable. We are all making, we're efficient in this hospital. The three points of call for each and every one of us as doctors is still the same person that we utilize. We do not have the advantage that some of the other politicians have for applying about this medical treatment. We all have our relationships in this country. So we want a system that will work so that we can remain in the country. Someone like me, I'm here, I've been working here and I graduated in 2014 and I've been working as a doctor while some of my contemporaries are overseas. Sometimes when they see you working in Nigeria, they tend to say, what's wrong with you boy? What are you doing in Nigeria? I think we don't want to hear, but we need to conducive working environment that will enable us to start our routine. And it is to the betterment of the public that we want the health system to work with us. If you also consider the budget allocation, 5.7% was allocated for 10% of the budget. After 10, 15% which is supposed to be the budget declaration in 2011, this has not been practiced. So we are all asking for a good working environment and a good health care system. All right. So speaking about demand now, the anti-brain drain bill currently before the National Assembly is also, the resident doctors are also demanding that that is thrown out. So let's hear your thoughts on that. Yes, like we earlier said, we bring them to the frequency, the prehensible, unacceptable. There are other modalities, we heard the Minister for Labor, Dr. Fethi, and we will talk about it. And there are other ways that you can bond the doctor. The medical school training is not like the order of last year. For instance, if as she goes on site, other students will come back and they make them to write exams. The medical school is not that way. You have to spend the number of days, I for one, I spent seven years in the medical school just because of as we site. And at the point, Ebola came in and we could not write exams. It's not like the order of last year, you two got this four years or five years, do you understand? So if you want to make the medical students, you want to bond them, you are going to spend a lot of years, maybe you spend 10 years in the medical school and somebody asking you to be bonded and stay in the country without the common license. Okay, what is the practicing license that these persons that you are preventing from having that? How do they practice? If you want to say that in five, you have to spend five years within the country before they leave. I tell you at the past, most of the doctors that have stayed more than five years, like I for one, I spent more than five years and I have 10 days and counting. So you may like to give the country because I have spent five years, that is my way to tackle the situation. Like the Honourable Minister has said, you don't steal and hand to the sledgehammer. Let's look for modality to bond the doctor, make the working environment conducive and they are going to stay. The demand that the rest 10 doctors made are asking for 200% increment in the salary. It has been a result of some of these factors. The exchange rate, the inflation in the country. All these factors, the salary, nine years ago I had a salary. Now, it's not the same thing. The commerce medical, consolidated medical salary structure that was viewed in 2009, it was implemented in 2014. So if you want these doctors to stay in the country, I think we also have to tackle that as well as all the issues, all the full factors that will make them stay in the country. Alright, so some would say that the back and forth that has been going on now for a while now between the resident doctors and the federal government is embarrassing. What are your thoughts on that? Do you think it's embarrassing for the country, for Nigeria? Yes, it's embarrassing for the country, I agree with you. But I think we have to get it right someday. Same with the political atmosphere. A lot of things in the country is embarrassing. And this is not an assumption. We believe that with the right tool in place, all this is going to be a thing of the past. And we recall and we look back and say we have started on the good footing. The strike is not for the administration. Even if the administration has one day to go in office, I think that the incoming president will also have to take a look at it and decide to make sure that the health care system is given every advantage that it has. Health, education, defense are the major factors and major management that any country that can see us will have to look into, including information technology. So I believe that this is also embarrassing that we have to put this talk to it and make sure that our health system is working. We need health, I need health. The health relation is the world relation and I believe that we should work in that direction. All right, Dr. Arthur, what's the stand with the strike now for the resident doctors? Are we still going to witness the strike? Yes. There was an emergency meeting that was held yesterday. All the centers across the country, both the federal and some private institutions were part of that meeting. And it was agreed that strikes should commence when the reason for giving this time is to allow the resident doctors to come back to the hospital and hand over their patients to the consultants who are under the medical and dental consultation of Nigeria. That's on the count. So the consultants need to be working for the resident doctors and the health officers are not going to be at work. However, we know that the resident doctors have a higher amount of workforce and their most of the jobs are done by the resident doctors who are in training at various levels. We have the Registrar and the Senior Registrar who have the designation and duty. So the strike is going to commence at 10 tomorrow morning. And for us here in the rest of the medical system, we are also going to be part of that strike. And we have directed our staff monitoring from the team to go around the hospital and be coming. We are going to catch anybody because they are going to be fine with the default. So we suppose that this is an indefinite strike, right? No, it's not an indefinite strike. It's just one week. It's a five-day strike. It's going to expire on Monday morning. Okay. All right then. Thank you very much. Thank you, Dr. Ather, for joining us on news now tonight. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right then.