 Striking resident doctors have a renewed support in the Nigerian Medical Association NMA. The Major Doctors Association in Nigeria has publicly voiced its support for the nationwide striking backed on by the National Association of Resident Doctors. And the NMA has in addition asked the federal government to resolve all pending issues with the resident doctors within 21 days. The NMA released a statement to that effect after its executive arm held a National Executive Council meeting, which ended on Saturday in Benin City. The statement was jointly signed by its president, Professor Inosen Ujja and Secretary-General Dr. Philip Ekwe. A medical doctor at the University of Kalabat Teaching Hospital, Dr. Inosen Abang is joining us via Zoom for a short interview. Good evening, Dr. Abang. Good evening. How are you? I'm fine. All right. So why is the NMA fully supporting the resident doctor strike? Well, the NMA being the Morda Association and the umbrella body of all the medical associations have the responsibility to guide every order affiliate and for the issues at hand. We understand that the resident doctors have had a memorandum of understanding with the government sometime back and the government promised to implement every of the points they had agreed on. Unfortunately, after how many months now, we see that government has reneged on their own back from fulfilling all these things they've agreed. And so it's brought down to the Niger Medical Association as the umbrella body and looking at all the things that we agreed on. They are very German points. These are basic things. Hazard allowance. We all know that the medical doctors have an NM5,000 error, hazard allowance for over 20 years or so. And the government agreed to review these. And apart from that, government promised them on training and even salary. Some of the doctors have not earned their salary for five to six months. And government paid one, two months, making the resident doctors to suspend their initial strike. And after that, they started ON again. So many of that, apart from that, the medical and dental association, that's a consultant in the hospital, have a dichotomy in the salaries. Those in the university are earning far less than their colleagues who are fully, like consultants who are fully in the digital hospital. And they've looked into it, gave government an ultimate, they even shifted it. And all these government have been playing alongside, just trying to do delay tactics. And so this was presented in the Niger Medical Association. And it was exhaustively debated, they elevated upon, it was a robust time of discussion. And so in the Niger Medical Association, I don't weigh everything, how to throw their way behind the resident doctors and their affiliates and giving government this period to make sure they execute and implement these basic things. So that's why the enemy had to back the National Association of Residential Doctors. And now the no work, no pay policy has been evoked. Where does that take this to? Well, that's always been the gimmicks of government of Nigeria. Well, government does not play with this part, it does not take responsibility. And then fields, you can just assume a law, a law. There's anybody that comes to equity must come with clean hands. Government has failed. And so whatever your executing, it's a game of failure. You can't tell us that you have reneged on what you agreed and signed. And then all you could just do is to not show that you're a natural man and bring out your every slate to hit on the people you think don't have this trend. And so no work, no pay has never been a problem to anybody. They don't need to ask you before and they return to crawl back to be paying as soon. When you are wrong, you're wrong. Government should not begin to play the ostrich and should stop all those gimmicks. Let them do the right thing. If they don't pay, the doctors are exiting and they are migrating in MS. So you don't pay them, they are living as we speak. I don't know who they'll be paying because we don't talk to them already on their way out. So let them do the right thing and leave this no work, no pay rule. And we went to Elephant's fight. It is the grass that suffers. Where does this place the patients, the Nigerian patients? Well, that's been our concern. Well, you see the doctors have spent strike many times. It's not because they are afraid or they're tired of fighting. It's been because from our training, you are trained to have all your pressure, all your life, taking care of patients. Several times we see doctors die even out of exhaustion on their patients because they were so concerned about the patient. But like I speak with you right now, the truth about it is this. The government is taking the doctors for a ride. We think that the Nigerian people should also wake up and tell themselves the truth. It's time for us to support this fight and make sure that this thing stops. This government is a charity. It has to stop. So let us wake up. The Nigerian population should join this fight. And I think if we all come up in a short while, government will play their part and doctors will return to work. Dr. Abang, when you say Nigerians should play their part in making this happen, how exactly should Nigerians go about playing their part in this fight? Now, what I've seen in Nigeria is the docility sometimes of level of ignorance and ineptitude has brought us this far. Every Nigerian knows that what the government is doing, it's cutting across all the facets of the fabric of the country. We think that Nigerians should come on air, just like what you're doing now. Come on and talk about it. Those who have government ears should speak to them. Tell them that this is not proper. Now, if you read your papers, I just saw one of the news line just this evening that Nigerian doctors are going into tears because of the salary they got in the first month out there. Now, it tells you that what we are doing here, this is not a republic out of this car. This is still existing in Planet Earth. The same thing we see even in our neighbouring African countries. Nigerians, the government does not even want to. How much does a senator take for a work group? How much do they end for very careless things? A basic sort of asset allowance, we lost a lot of our doctors. I lost the only neurosurgeon we had at that time in Tichahalabua, and then we have the second one. It's so bad that the government does not care about all this because they can fly out. The Nigerian people should know that this government does not care about them. And as you rise up and talk, go to the media, write about it. Health is disturbing the GDP of the country. I mean, Nigerian people don't care. Somebody who is sick cannot produce anything. So we need to wake up, which means to talk about it. Let people not stay aloof, or they will pay for it also. What would you say about the reports of the DSS dispersing doctors who had gone to write examinations to migrate to Saudi Arabia? Well, I think that was not totally correct. I think the DSS just came in. And to correct, the people were just told to leave, not because they came to dispatch the doctor. They had finished and they relocated. The people actually relocated to an outlet because of the news coverage. It wasn't a dispersion by DSS. And then secondly, what people were looking at is just a small fragment of the place that they are actually interviewed. That interview is just one of, I can say that if it is some part of the interview. Most of the interview are just online. But most of us, as I speak with you, I was saying the link up to last year, since last year, is that some of us have chosen to be around. You don't meet those interview places. Just a few people that go there. Most of them are just online and they are gone. So all those DSS and whatever, doesn't hold water. Oh, well, thanks for that clarification because we've had, you know, divergent reports about that particular interview. Now, Nigeria has, where reports shows that Nigeria has the third highest number of foreign doctors working in the UK. And that's after India and Pakistan. However, Nigeria suffers, you know, a shortage of doctors. That's from the same report that you quoted earlier. How does this strike you though? How does it hit you that Nigeria does not have enough doctors? And we're having all of these problems. And so many Nigerian doctors are leaving the shores of the country. To other countries, very pathetic. No, well, that's, like if we did a little science in an auspicious gradient, there's always a motion from lower concentration to highest concentration. And like we say generally, that people gravitate to where they are celebrated, not where they are tolerated. Now, we think they have been tolerated in Nigeria, where they are celebrated out there. I've traveled so many countries. I've built my colleague. I've even gone to do programs and surgeries with my colleagues in the US and other places. And we know clearly that it's nothing. I present the past in the US, and they will tell you how people do Nigeria with the poor resources. I can boast to you that this is one of the best training area for doctors. Nigerian doctors are one of the best trained in the world. And I can tell you that anywhere they go, they sail and they sail. So that's why the government need to wake up to their responsibility. We are so shocked that the minister for health will tell you that it has some players doctor. When the ratio of patient to the doctor to patient ratio is so poor in Nigeria by WHO, and the minister can still say that, I mean, I think it's a sorry case for Nigeria. I tell you this immigration will continue and it will not stop until the Nigerian government changes their policy and their approach to the health care of their people. Well, we look forward to seeing that change happen in the nearest future doctor. Thank you so much, Dr. Inos and Abang, for your time and insight on this very important subject matter. You're welcome. Hello, hope you enjoyed the news. Please do subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.