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Sunday, 16 November 2014
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Fashola Is A Tyrant----Lagos NMA Chairman

ARTICLE | NOVEMBER 14, 2014 - 9:02AM | BY LARA ADEJORO



Expressing his displeasure over the non-payment of salaries for doctors employed by the Lagos State government and the poor state of the health sector, poor working conditions, the Lagos State Chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association, Dr. Tope Ojo in this interview with LARA ADEJORO says any nation waging war against the health of his people by targeting the custodian of health is only  destined to ruin.

What is your take on the non-payment of salaries for doctors employed by the Lagos State government?

Tell Fashola that he is a tyrant. Anybody that attended a Nigeria University 25 years ago, who is a graduate of the first generation and the second generation of a Nigeria university that has gone through a university at a cost that is equal to no cost and he's now saying that a Nigerian child should pay N300,000 in a state university, that person is breeding a milieu for potential Boko Haram, prostitute, criminals, armed robbers. The milieu will be built because the common woman who fries plaintain, runs a small boutique or that guy who vulcanises your tire or those that earn meagre salary cannot afford the pay and those children will come back to be what? I attended a university when the entire education for me to study medicine was not up to N20,000 for six years because I was only paying tuition, I was paying N45 for accommodation per section, I was taking N90 or N120 per month between 1986, 1987 to 1993 and it still doesn't matter because we all belong to the same generation and Fashola belongs to that because he is just in his 50s. So, the same level of tyranny is what will inform him to have hated the Lagos State employed doctors. Why he hates them is simple, his predecessor and his political god-father, Tinubu pretending to be an advocate of a democracy in 1999 was able to ride on the euphoria of that moment to deal a decisive blow on Lagos State employed movement when that culminated into the sack of Ayodele Akele, then they thought he was rude but because of the high level of intellectualism among doctors, they continued with the battle. The only people that formed a formidable opposition which led to protest of the Lagos State doctors between 2007 till date is why the Lagos State Government is bent on annihiliating the medical profession. And you know, health is wealth, any nation that is waging war against the health of his people by targeting the custodian of health is only  destined to ruin. Since the last 3 years, the Lagos State Government has refused to employ any doctor on full-time basis, whereas all other employee has been done. Our Comrade in Edo State, Governor Adams Oshiomhole was casualising the workers too, he casualised almost all the work force of Edo State but because he could see the massive tsunami of protest and uprise of the Edo people, he unequivocally reversed that. In fact, he had to sacrifice his permanent secretaries that failed to comply. So, in Edo State, casualisation has been completed wiped out but Lagos State is the only state in the country that has continued to employ doctors on casualisation because the doctors have been the only ones confronting the state government since 2007. We just came back from a strike and the strike was not to ask for increment of salary, we were saying that all Nigerians should have access to health, that if your family member dies from Ebola, he should have life insurance, hazard allowance, these are basic things we were talking about. We were saying the post-graduate programme should be all encompassing for Nigeria to produce more specialists and are these things wrong? They flattened it and said doctors are asking for money and at the end of this, the Federal Government and the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) had a truce. The truce was such that, there will not be any victimisation and negotiation will be on going but Lagos State said, it's a policy of no work, no pay. When for 8 months, the Academic Staff Union of
Universities (ASUU) went on strike, the Lagos State chapter was paid, when the judiciary workers were on strike, they were paid. The polytechnic staff went on strike and they were paid and they were saying no work, no pay for doctors. Since the strike has been called off, we have written over 50 letters and the Governor never replied.

But the Lagos State House of Assembly already said they were going to intervene on that?

There are a lot of good people in the House of Assembly but the Lagos State Government is like the proverbial dog that will get lost, that will never listen to the flute of the hunter and that is what Fashola represents.

So, what has been happening?

They've not paid doctors since July maybe except for the few that are sycophants but as far as I'm concerned, they've been owing doctors since July, August, September. In fact, it took a threat for them not to withhold October salary and I'm aware that a few people are not even paid in October. So, we've done a lot of advocacy initially, thinking that we could work together but we have found out that the state government is unrepentantly bent on destroying the health of Lagosians because once you are annihilated from your doctors, I wonder what you want to do. A lot of facilities they are building are devoid of personnel because they don't have any recourse for the medical association on the basis of planning and an encompassing participation to say this is what is required. You can't just say there is a General Hospital in Ijede, it must be a situation that, if anybody has bone injury, you tell him or her to go to Gbagada, then you have others but they are doing it based on their own shallow understanding. The Lagos State Government has systematically over the years replaced intellectualism with mediocrity.

Now that over 50 letters have been written to the state government with no reply, what is the next step?

Those that made possible change in the words of Frantz Fanon is violent change inevitable, that is the reality of it. If the Lagos State government has made things to fall apart, then surely the centre will definitely not hold. Advocacy of 5 months down the line and doctors are being singled out based on a policy that rests on chicken legs, definitely can no longer guarantee peace in the health sector.  We have written several letters of friendship, trying to exist together on the basis of genuity but that has been completely rebuffed by the state government.

What will you say about the strike embarked upon by the Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU)?

You see, in a country where you have common sense been replaced by some tendencies that is based on petty material gain, in a country where legislation has been reduced to money bag legislation rather than democracy and common sense, then you have this. What they are telling you now is that even the cleaner can become a consultant. Who is a consultant? A consultant is a doctor who has gone for another six years of excruciating academic sojourn through the post-graduate colleges and then becomes a consultant, that is a specialist in the various fields. When going to the hospital, will you say you are going to see your consultant nurse. These are the issues because what the Nigeria government  is doing is illegalising the system into eternal destruction.

Don't you think there are adverse effects on the fact that the health workers are on strike. Won't the doctors be over-burdened in the discharge of their duties?

It doesn't make any difference. Whether there is strike or not. The health sector is now dangerous. There is going to be increased mortality based on anarchy. Now, we are trying to deal with impersonation from allied health workers who parade themselves as gynaecologists when they are midwives, parade themselves as orthopaedic surgeons when they are plaster room technician, and now you are giving them the room, it is death, death and death. That is the meaning. The Nigeria government has over-stamped death certificate in Nigeria based on this. For Nigerians, it is a sad story that the Nigeria ruling class is eternally corrupt morally, socially, monetarily. You talk about what happen in America but does this kind of policy hold forth?

What is the hope for the patients and Nigerians generally?

There is no hope. They should be on the street, fighting against the death sentence that has been passed on them by the Nigeria government.

Where were they when those kids paid the tuition? Truth is they have something up their sleeves.