For many years,
Allopathic Medical Doctors in Nigeria have
always hoodwinked the Government and the
general public, through falsehood and
blackmail. They have coerced the Government
to take unfavorable decisions which have
always been detrimental to the health sector
and the Nigerian populace. They have
continually done this as a result of the
structural injustice that has been perpetuated
by many members of NMA in high places in
Government. They undermine the laws setting
up the hospital system, the Public Service
Rules and above all the constitution of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria. At this juncture let
us have a critical look at those demands.
(1) APPOINTMENT OF THE POST OF THE
DEPUTY CMAC IN HOSPITALS. In line with the
University Hospitals (reconstruction of boards)
cap U15, LFN 2004 commonly called decree 10
of 1985 which governs Hospital practice in
Nigerian, there is the office of the CMAC but it
never provided for the office of the DCMAC. In
section 4, it provides thus; “there shall be for
each Hospital, a Chairman of the Medical
Advisory Committee who shall be appointed
by the Board and responsible to the Chief
Medical Director for all the Clinical and
Training activities of the Hospital”. Section 2i
provides that; the CMAC is a member of the
board. There is no place in the organic law
setting up the hospital that created the office
of the DCMAC and there is no place it says
that only Allopathic Medical Doctors should be
appointed as such. Yet NMA is insisting that
the Government must appoint four DCMAC in
every Teaching Hospital and three in every
Federal Medical Centre. All along, Boards of
Hospitals as a result of threats from NMA have
been allowing this illegal office to be used to
undermine statutory approved Scheme of
Service of other professional groups. The
Public Service Rule in section 1-general in
160101 provides; ‘A Parastatal is a
government-owned organization, established
by statutes to render specified service(s) to
the public. It is structured and operates
according to the instrument establishing it and
also comes under the policy directives of
government. In line with 160201 (a) statutory
boards/council shall set operational and
administrative policies in accordance with
government policy directives and supervise the
implementation of such policies. A situation
where Allopathic Medical Doctors in Nigeria
wants the Government to continue to create
post and responsibilities not backed by
statutes undermines the principles of good
governance. It is gross violation of the law
setting the Government owned institution.
Moreover, it is trite law that you cannot add to
a statute. That will be ultra verse.
(2) NMA IS OPPOSED TO THE APPOINTMENT OF
DIRECTORS IN HOSPITALS. It should be noted
that this statement is laden with deceit as
postulated by NMA, that having Directors in
hospitals will affect patient care negatively.
This is fallacy of the highest order. The truth
of the matter is, NMA does not want
professional departments as directorates in
the various Scheme of Service, rendering
professional duties like the department of
Pharmaceutical Services headed by the
Director of Pharmaceutical Services who is a
Pharmacist. Department of Nursing Services
under the Director Nursing Services, who is a
Nurse. The Department of Medical Laboratory
Services under the Director of Medical
Laboratory Services, who is Medical Laboratory
Scientist etc.And all are answerable to the
Chief Medical Director. It should be noted
that, NMA and her members were the ones
who negotiated their present Scheme of
Service that all their members can rise to level
17 without being called Directors. Other
Healthcare Personnel have continued to follow
their own Scheme of Service where only one
person gets to level 17 and is designated the
Director, which is the most popular path in the
Public Service. Again in the criteria for
employment as stated in the Public Service
rule in 020205,-“to be eligible for appointment
into the federal Public Service, every applicant
must 020205(e) possess requisite qualification
as provide in the Scheme of Service.” The
Scheme of Service of all other Healthcare
Personnel in the hospital provides for a
Directorate system. Now NMA and her
members want to go on strike for Government
to jettison the Public Service Rule which is a
Government Policy Document. The Scheme of
Service for Allopathic Medical doctors provides
for a non Directorate system. AND NO
PROFESSIONAL GROUP IMPOSES HER OWN
SCHEME OF SERVICE ON THE OTHER.
SECONDLY NO EMPLOYEE DETERMINES THE
CONDITION OF SERVICE OF ANOTHER
EMPLOYEE. They are agitating for this in order
to entrench professional imperialism, so that
all other healthcare staff will not reach the
zenith of their career. That is the singular
reason, a doctor on level 15 is called a Head
of Department heading someone already on
level 17 and is designated a Director .This is
gross absurdity against the Public Service Rule.
There is no Government Institution in Nigerian
where such is seen, only in our Hospitals. And
that is what NMA wants to perpetuate. Rule
160103 of the Nigerian Public Service Rule
provides –“Parastatals are to retain and
improve existing rules, procedures and
practices in their establishments and ensure
that there are no deviations from the general
principles contained in the Public Service
Rules………………………………however in the
absence of internal rules and regulations on
any matter, the relevant provisions of the
Public Services Rule shall apply”. This can also
be seen in section 5(5) and 17 of the act
governing hospital practice in Nigeria. NMA’s
demands are anti- Public Service Rule.
(3) NMA DEMANDS THAT GRADE LEVEL 12
SHOULD BE SKIPPED BY DOCTORS.
This demand is not in line with Government
approved Scheme of Service for Doctors.NMA
in her usual falsehood has always accused
JOHESU members of skipping when in actual
sense there is nothing like that. The term is a
misnomer this is because skipping is when a
Civil Servant moves from a grade level to a
higher grade level that is not provided for in
the Scheme of Service e.g. when a worker
moves from 8-10 and there is no approval for
such a special promotion ,this is skipping. But
when you move from 10- 12 this is not
skipping because this is provided in the
Scheme of Service and there is no level 11 in
the Scheme of Service. A baby physician
enters the Service on level 12, which is a
principal grade. Now NMA is insisting that they
must be appointed on level 13, which is an
Assistant Chief Cadre. Haba! How can a
beginner enter the Civil Service on an Assistant
Chief Cadre? There is no Nigerian worker that
enters the Service on such grade. There is no
Nigerian Civil Servants that skips. This is not
provided in any known Nigerian scheme of
Service.
(4 ) APPOINTMENT OF OTHER MEDICAL
PERSONNEL AS CONSULTANTS.
NMA is threatening to go on strike because the
Government has chosen to obey Court
judgment in favour of other Health Personnel
that they can also be appointed as consultants
in their chosen field. In a false sense of well
being, NMA insists that they own the patients
and as such only the medical doctor can be
called a Consultant. Nobody owns the patient;
rather the patient is the epi-centre of
Healthcare Service. Medical doctors are just
one of the professional skilled healthcare
attendants in a hospital, attending to the
healthcare needs of the patient. Each medical
personnel are given a license to practice their
chosen field. The various scheme of Service for
Pharmacists, Physiotherapist, Nurses, Medical
Laboratory Scientists etc provides that they can
be appointed as consultants. All over the
world, it is not only Allopathic Medical Doctors
that are appointed as consultants. A simple
google search will show that there are
different consultants in the Health Field. The
word consultant is not an exclusive term to
designate Allopathic Medical Doctors who are
specialists. William A .Cohen, PhD, in his
bestselling book “How to Make It Big as a
Consultant” has this to say on pages 2 and 3.
“Consultants operate in many different fields.
Import-export, management, human
resources, engineering, and marketing are
some of the more common ones. There are
consultants in archeology and consultants in
clothes selection. There are even consultants
to help authors overcome writer’s block.” On
page 3 he has this to say. “A consultant is
simply anyone who gives advice or performs
other services of a professional or a
semiprofessional nature in return for
compensation”. NMA wants to stop working
because other Healthcare Personnel are
appointed as consultants. Is NMA saying that
they are the only Professionals in the Health
Field?
(5) RELATIVITY IN HEALTH SECTOR
On what basis is NMA still agitating for
relativity when at the point of entry this has
been taken care of and resolved based on the
number of years one spends in school. Those
who spend four years have their entry point as
level 8,those that spend five years on level
9 ,those that spend five years with one year of
internship on level 10,while those that spend
six years with one year internship on level
twelve. The agitation for the so called relativity
is discriminatory and violates the Nigerian
Constitution as stipulated in section 34-(1).
NMA insisting that this must be sacrosanct in
the Health Sector is on what basis? It should
be noted that members of NMA are just
employees of the Government, just like every
other Civil Servant, and as such no employee
determines what another employee is to be
paid. It is never done anywhere in the world.
This is a sense of megalomania, and so this
jack of all trade mentality must stop.
(6) NATIONAL HEALTH BILL.
NMA is calling for the implementation of the
National Health Bill which has been shown to
contain a lot of clauses that are anti-people.
Many professional Associations, Civil Societies
and well meaning Nigerians have called for
the removal of these obnoxious sections of the
Bill. But NMA in the bid to actualize her set
selfish agenda has refused to give good reason
a chance. Again some part of the Bill
undermines the Nigerian Constitution in use in
a Federal System of Government. No Nigerian
Health Worker is against having a Health Bill
but all we are saying is that in order to meet
Government set objectives to enhance the
total wellbeing of the citizenry the obnoxious
sections has to be expunged.
(7) THE APPOINTMENT OF SURGEON GENERAL.
This office is not created by law. There is no
Nigerian statute that says that we must have
the office of the Surgeon General. Creation of
this office will lead to more agitation and
anarchy in the Health Sector which is already
polarized. Every professional group will be
agitating for the creation of X-general, e.g.
Pharmacist general, Nurse general,
Optometrist general, Radiographer general,
Physiotherapy general, Dietician general;
Medical laboratory scientist general etc. The
creation of this post will lead to more
problems in the health sector. Secondly of
what role and benefit is the office of the
Surgeon general when we already have two
Ministers of Health and there are many
Directors also having such functions?
( THE ENTRY POINT OF HOUSE OFFICER TO
BE ON COMMESS 1 STEP 4
This level is equivalent to grade level 10 steps
4. On what is this agitation predicated on,
when such entry point is not supported by any
Scheme of Service, used as one of the criteria
for appointment into the Public Service of the
federation? It should be noted that house
officers are intern or Pupil Medical Doctors.
There is no intern in Nigerian that enters the
service on step four. Moreover, steps are
indicators of the level of experience or years
the person /officer have spent on that grade
level. On what criteria is a neophyte/green
horn in his profession placed on step four?
What you have is either step one or step two.
Government should not accede to this
demand that undermines ethical procedural
practice in the Public Service.
(9) CLINICAL ALLOWANCES FOR HONORARY
CONSULTANTS TO BE INCREASED BY 90% OF
CONMESS.
Early this year, under the immediate past
President of NMA, Dr Enabulele, NMA had had
an upward salary increase for their members.
Not up to 5 months, NMA is now calling for
another bloated allowance. Note that
consultants are meant to render quality
service as Attending Physicians, but what do
we see daily in our hospitals? Most of the
times, the “consultants/honorary consultants”
are never around. Yet they want to be paid
such a jumbo allowance. Those that are
around, work four times in a month, having
one clinic day in a week.
(10) NMA, with the huge sum they are paid,
still wants adjustment in their specialist
allowance to be paid to all doctors on
CONMESS 3 and above, and must be paid its
equivalent that is not less than 50% higher
than what is paid to other Health Workers.
How can NMA be the one to decide what other
Health Workers get? NMA should go and read
the Parable of one Talent Payment.
(11) NMA is calling for Government to pay her
members 100,000 naira every month as just
hazard allowance. How can NMA be
demanding for such, despite all she is already
receiving? She is being too selfish/greedy in
her demands. Even other workers with worse
occupational hazards are not receiving such.
(12) NMA insists on immediate release of
circulars on rural posting, teaching and other
allowance which must include House Officers.
Since 2009 NMA and her members have been
collecting teaching allowance even though that
teaching allowances as approved by the
Government was for very Senior Medical
Doctors (Consultants and very Senior
Registrars)that are involved in teaching of
doctors in training, especially the junior and
senior interns. House officers are the junior
interns while Resident doctors are senior
interns doing a student fellowship to become a
specialist .Now NMA is agitating that the
interns who are still doctors in training should
be paid teaching allowance. House officers and
resident doctors by government circulars are
not entitled to this payment; it is because of
them that Government is paying the teaching
allowance. How can the doctor in training be
asking for teaching allowance when he is a
trainee, and who is he teaching? Since the
approval in 2009 and full implementation in
2010, House Officers and Resident Doctors
who are NMA members, have been
fraudulently collecting huge monthly teaching
allowances which they are not entitled. There
is no government circular or template that
approved such payment. It was in this year
2014, that the Government through the Call
Budget Circular from the Ministry of Finance
opposed and stopped the payment of teaching
allowance to interns. For five years members
of NMA who were not entitled to teaching
allowance have been defrauding the
Government. He who comes to equity must
come with clean hands.

Haba, God punish Devil...There is God ooooo

Greedy,arrogant, selfish ppl; na bad belle de worry these doctors I swear!