Abia doctors barricade govt house, demand payment of 24-month salary arrears

Medical Doctors in Abia State, protesting 24-month salary arrears owed medical and non-medical staff of Abia State University Teaching Hospital Aba (ABSUTH), again barricaded the entrance to the Abia Government House, Umuahia.

The doctors who came out in their numbers said that they were also protesting 13 months arrears owed doctors and other staff of Health Management Board.

The doctors who came from different parts of the state gathered at the Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia from where they marched to the Government House gate.

They chanted solidarity songs even as the doctors carried placards with different inscriptions such as: “Doctors lives matter”; “Our salary is our entitlement”; “2 years without salary ‘no be jokes’”; “Man’s inhumanity to man”, among others.

The State Chairman of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), Dr Isaiah Abali, who led the procession, said that doctors in the employ of the state government were passing through hell following many months of unpaid wages.

He bemoaned the condition of the doctors many of whom he said, “no longer meet their daily needs”.

Dr Abali expressed sadness over government’s inability to clear the backlog of salary arrears of doctors.

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He said that the protest had no political undertones, and asked the government to stop giving excuses, but clear the outstanding arrears.

The NMA state Secretary, Dr Daniel Ekeleme, had earlier reeled out the bitter experiences of some doctors in the hands of their landlord following their inability to renew their house rents.

A Consultant Hematologist at ABSUTH, Dr Chika Uche, said that it was unfair for the government, which “receives allocation every month” to pay political office holders with jumbo allowances, but owe workers who earn peanuts.

She described the nonchalant attitude of the government to the plight of doctors as cruelty and the height of insensitivity.

But speaking in Umuahia yesterday, Chief John Okiyi-Kalu, director of Strategic Engagement, Abia State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Campaign Council called on the people of the state to demand a factual response from the Nigerian Medical Association on the lingering dispute between doctors and the state government. 

Okiyi-Kalu said that facts have shown that since the inception of the Dr Okezie Ikpeazu’s administration in 2015 the medical doctors have been on strike for 35 months.

He questioned the moral right the doctors have to demand such payments when facts and figures at the disposal of the government, according to him, were listed undisputably by the state Commissioner for Information, Eze Chikamnayo, show that they do not merit what they are demanding.

Okiyi-Kalu urged the Abia people to eschew all forms of political gimmicks and question some abnormalities in the Abia health sector causing the conflict, stressing that every conflict should end in permanent solutions to society’s challenges, including the ongoing one between the Abia Government and NMA.

“Naturally, because of the important role played by medical doctors in the health management chain, it is expected that popular sentiments will be in support of the striking doctors and weighed against the government more so when arrowheads of the strike timed it to coincide with the forthcoming general elections that some desperate opposition politicians are ready to attempt to win by hook or crook.

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“But the question to ask is if those medical doctors actually worked for the months of arrears they are demanding payment for or should pay the government and people of Abia State for receiving more salary than they have worked for.”

Okiyi-Kalu said that the root of the current wage management challenge in HMB and ABSUTH is traceable to 2015, where he witnessed a meeting between Governor Okezie Ikpeazu who was new in office and management and union leaders from ABSUTH at the Government House in Umuahia.

According to him, the meeting was called to stave off planned strike by the doctors and the crux of their presentation to the governor was simply that he paid off the arrears of salary owed them and they would from thenceforth make revenue to fund their regular salary payment.

He said that they also requested support with more modern equipment for their operations and later in the life of the administration asked for ABSUTH road to be fixed, which according to him, were all granted by the governor.

“Governor Okezie Ikpeazu went ahead to pay them 11 months salary arrears in one tranche that same year. For those medical doctors earning N500,000/month, they received an alert of N5, 500,000.00 in one day per person.

“Two months after receiving the jumbo alert, the management of ABSUTH and some of the union leaders returned to the governor to plead that they be given subventions to continue paying salary while they adjust operationally to build on their IGR and commence running independently. Governor Ikpeazu obliged them again.

“Interestingly, shortly after the jumbo pay by the government, many of those medical doctors ‘invested’ the money on improving their private clinics or renting and equipping new clinics. And as they ensured that their personal businesses were booming ABSUTH’s fortunes continued to depreciate,” he noted.

Okiyi-Kalu said that the painful part of the whole thing was that despite the governor’s earlier efforts, privates clinics of doctors were booming and rather than generate more revenue to at least pay themselves, their IGR continued to dwindle from what it was in 2015 till date, as they racked up 35 months of strike without work, yet are making demands that the government must pay them for those months they were on strike.

He, however, alleged that there is a political undertone in what the NMA and HMB are doing currently saying, saying “I personally do not want to engage on issues of political motivation for labour recalcitrance at this time, even though I can personally attest to at least three executive members of Abia NMA attending a political rally in Aba organized by an opposition party.SUN