Quote: "In her response on behalf of the protesters, she threatened they would stage a repeat protest if, by next week, the harmonised bill has not been passed."

Women protesters threaten to go nude at National Assembly gate
By Emmanuel Ogala
May 19, 2011 01:00AM

Thousands of women protesting the delay in the passage of the National Health Bill were prevented from carrying their protest to the National Assembly protest grounds until they threatened to go nude at the assembly gate.

The women, some of whom were visibly angry, were not happy with what they said was the tardiness of the lawmakers over the passage of the Bill with days to the end of the session of the assembly, but they were stopped at the gates of the national assembly by police officers.

The women, though armed with only placards, were only let into the premises of the national assembly to use the protest ground after they threatened to go nude.

The protesting women, mostly members of the Federal Capital Territory Market Women Association and several other health pressure groups, said the lawmakers were dilly-dallying over the bill, whose passage would strengthen the primary healthcare system and reduce cost of medical care for rural dwellers.

Delay on variables
The protesters were later addressed at the protest ground by the Senate chairman on Health, Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello (PDP Ogun State) and Gyan Dantong (PDP Plateau State). They soothed the protesters with an assurance that work on the bill was in progress.

Mrs Obasanjo-Bello said the delay in passing the National Health Bill was due to the need to ensure that all necessary variables that will make it people oriented and especially beneficial to women and children, were added.

“We have worked on this bill night and day so that healthcare in Nigeria can be adequately funded; the conference committee of the National Assembly has met over the bill and by tomorrow the work would have been done, leaving the rest for bureaucracy and executive,” Mrs Obasanjo-Bello said.

Felicia Sani, chairperson of the FCT Market Women Association, however, rejected Mrs Obasanjo-Bello’s assurances.

In her response on behalf of the protesters, she threatened they would stage a repeat protest if, by next week, the harmonised bill has not been passed.

Mrs Sani told the senators that the National Health Bill confers key benefits on the weak Nigerian Health System and will contribute towards accelerating the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

She added that the bill will be most beneficial to women and children who cannot afford to travel overseas for medical checkups and treatment, unlike the families of the lawmakers.

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5702253-146/story.csp

[size=14pt]And nobody knows the contents of the bill? Nigerian journalists are too d.umb for modern day journalism[/size]

No doubt this democracy is just warming up. It looks like someone in the mix called out the women for some reason. We also don't know the contents of this bill - thanks to junk journalism.

Still, the NA passed something that carries that seem to carry benefit for the layman for once.

ahidjo:

[size=14pt]And nobody knows the contents of the bill? Nigerian journalists are too d.umb for modern day journalism[/size]

Senate passes National Health Bill
On May 19, 2011 · In News

ABUJA— A day after a group of women protested at the National Assembly over the delay in the passage of the National Health Bill, the Senate, yesterday, passed the bill with President of the Senate, senator David Mark, insisting that the passage of the Bill had nothing to do with the protest.

Senator Iyabo Obasanjo, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, who presented the report yesterday explained that the delay in the passage of the Bill was occasioned by “Technical Difficulties.”


Women protesting against the apparent unwillingness of law makers to pass the Health Bill at the National Assembly premises, Abuja, Tuesday. Photo: Gbemiga Olamikan



Senator Mark explained that the bill was important to the nation and must be passed by the Senate, saying: “It is an important bill.

It is true that it has taken a while but we were able to pass it. Anything that has to with health has to pass through rigorous scrutiny. We did not pass the bill because people were protesting yesterday; we are only doing our work. The bill was slated in the order paper yesterday when they were protesting.”

While presenting the conference committee report on a Bill, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello said the delay of the passage was as a result of some technical problems.

She said: “Following differences in the two versions of the bill as passed by the two Houses of the National Assembly, a conference committee was constituted in the Senate on Thursday 7th May, 2009 and House on Thursday, 28 May, 2009 to harmonise the differences.

“The bill was thereafter passed in identical form by both Houses and transmitted to the Clerk of the National assembly for further action. This was not to be, as the Legal Department returned it (Bill) for what they considered to be enactment problem.”

She said the “House of Representatives at the instance of the Minister of Health made new inputs which were not in the version the Senate passed. The paragraphs added were eventually removed and moved back to the original version.”

She disclosed that because of the importance of the bill, the committee had to start work on the bill all over again because there was no rule that said one Senate could start where the other Senate ended.

The bill among others seek to define, streamline and provide a framework for standard and regulation of health services in the country; spell out rights and duties of healthcare providers, health workers, health agencies and users, and serve as a guide in the development, promotion and formulation of national health amongst others.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/05/senate-passes-national-health-bill/

The bill is okay in some aspect except that the medical doctors using ministry of health want to legalize their tyranny via back door.They want to make other health care professional their perpetual slaves, and it will never work.I thank God this is democracy, they just shot themselves on the foot because this law will be contested in law court if passed and it will crumble.I am happy that this came up now and it will stop all this rubbish in health where medical doctors decide who will be paid this or not.They twist memos to suit their greed and believe they know all.So if the health field is Nigeria,then Jonathan will never aspire to head it because he come from minority tribe.so other health care professional that are qualified cannot head ministry of health.Today our health system is in shamble.We have one of the highest mortality rates in the world.We are developing in health in the eye of only medical doctor who went for their own salary increase but after getting their own said other health care professionals will not get theirs, when they protested they say okay take 25% , but when they came together and decided to go on strike immediately Ministry of health have to increase it in line with medical doctors own.the evil in our health system are medical doctors.They claim they are not jealous of others but are fighting pharmacists from doing pharm D.they are doing everything to make the public not to see the optometrist as doctors,but they have failed.they are fighting radiographers, YET THEY SAY OTHER ARE JEALOUS OF THEM.who is jealous here tell me.
THIS LAW WILL BRING OUT ALL THE PROBLEM IN OUR HEALTH SECTOR> THANK GOD other healcare workers  CAN GO TO COURT .this is not 1984 when Ransome kuti used military to kill our health sector.This is democracy MAN!!!!

the crowd was organised by NMA in their bid to confuse Nigerians into been slaves to them.They forget that 2011 n0 be 1984 and that Jonathan na Ph.D holder ,therefore he cannot be easily deceived.They keep on fighting others at every little chance.what is special about call duty allowance that they dont want optometrist to rest,but they are not having sound sleep either because if you no want others to sleep you no go sleep and it is just for a while and they will discover that they have wasted their time fighting others.see since 2002 teachers in nasarawa are been paid call duty allowance,so what is their basis of fighting optometrists. J-E-A-LO-U-S-Y caused by inferiority complex. i want to be the only one they call DR.i want to be alpha and omega, etc.

med.dr are the least informed even in some health issues.A medical doctor yesterday gave dexamethsone eye drop to a patient with glaucoma,if not for the optometrist at a local hospital nearby the young girl would have gone blind after some days.this medical doctor would have refered her but why will he.Medical doctor know everything and that knowledge would have rendered a citizen of this country blind.they are funny people,9ja med.drs are funny people.

@Ikennahill,even ur user name sounds as funny as u do! , I sense ur the one with inferiority complex.How on earth do u want to compare a medical Doctor with an optometrist?, I dont seem to geddit.Saying that medical Doctors are the least informed in some health isues gave ur negative argument away! The high mortality rates in Nigeria is due to failure of governance for ur information!

@karl ken. I dont think you are a scientist if you are you should have used empherical eveidence.Actually there is no need to compare optometrist and medical doctor.In nigeria a medical doctor know all while others like the optometrists dont know anything .there is no comparism at all . medical doctors are next to God while judges(the only people legally allowed to take one life),pilots,medical labscientists,pharmacists,etc are stupid and empty, why not?

medical doctors killed health sector in nigeria and they are now blaming government.before 1984 when med.drs were handed the control of hospital by prof.ransome kuti what was or health index.Optometrists are the torn in the flesh of medical drs because they allow their fellow ophthalmologists to deceive them.you will not see the comparism because you are blind.you write drugs but somebody produced the drugs and is not making noise.Health system in Nigeria is a failure because quacks are runing our health system.
med.drs doing adminsitration are quacks in there.That is why all they do is NMA agenda.they failed woefly in this new health bill even after organising the women to demostrate.now nigerians now know how stupid they are in management and adminstration. see who is blaming government after failure, kindly check this out

who is minister of health  Med.dr
who is perm sec of health; med.drs
who are the directors in federal  ministry of health;med drs
who are the commisionners of health in more than 30 states of nigeria;med drs
who  are the head of hospital mgt boards in all 36 states of nigeria;med.drs
who are the chairmen of boards of all 36 state Hospital Mgt board;med drs
who are the Chief medical directors of all teaching hospitals in  Nigeria; med.drswho are the medical directors of all general and cntral hospitals in Nigeria;med.drs
who are the head of all unit hospitals in nigeria;med drs

as you can see,med.drs are the one that killed health services because they think like Hitler and want to kill other health care professionals in the country.see what they did in the recent health bill,where they want to start regulating others.you are not an optometrist but you are intrested in optometrists salary,you are not a radiographer but you want to stop the Ph.D programme of radiographer because people will call them doctors.you are not a pharmacist but you want to sto Pharm .D programme and have done everything to stop it that is why you want the minister of health to have power to regulate the length of training ,content of training of others in the new health bill.you got comess but tried to frustrate others from getting cohess,you want good life but want others to die in poverty and you think you will succed./9ja med drs are funny.medcine is a first degree, optometry is a first degree.
medical drs are doctors, optometrists are doctors,medcine is 6yrs ,optometry is 6yrs, medcine is a health care professional ,optometry is a health care professionals, medcine threat diesases and disorders, optometry treat diseases and disorders,medcine prescribe medication ,optometry do the same,no medical doctor can match a succesful optometrist any whrer in the world.optometrsis make their money cooly ,medical doctors make their money crying

Nigerian shakara pawa ends in protesting!
Mor tok-tok!

ikennahill:

@karl ken. I dont think you are a scientist if you are you should have used empherical eveidence.Actually there is no need to compare optometrist and medical doctor.In nigeria a medical doctor know all while others like the optometrists dont know anything .there is no comparism at all . medical doctors are next to God while judges(the only people legally allowed to take one life),pilots,medical labscientists,pharmacists,etc are silly and empty, why not?

Actually, medical doctors are more widely trained than optometrists.

ikennahill:

medical doctors killed health sector in nigeria and they are now blaming government.before 1984 when med.drs were handed the control of hospital by prof.ransome kuti what was or health index.Optometrists are the torn in the flesh of medical drs because they allow their fellow ophthalmologists to deceive them.you will not see the comparism because you are blind.you write drugs but somebody produced the drugs and is not making noise.Health system in Nigeria is a failure because quacks are runing our health system.

Do you have evidence for this claim? You may note that actually all the sectors in Nigeria have been failing so how can you pick on a single issue and point at this as the root cause? This is a fallacy known as cum hoc, ergo propter hoc.

ikennahill:

med.drs doing adminsitration are quacks in there.That is why all they do is NMA agenda.they failed woefly in this new health bill even after organising the women to demostrate.now nigerians now know how silly they are in management and adminstration. see who is blaming government after failure, kindly check this out

Medical doctors in administrative posts are quacks? Please what fields are they quacks in?

ikennahill:

who is minister of health  Med.dr
who is perm sec of health; med.drs
who are the directors in federal  ministry of health;med drs
who are the commisionners of health in more than 30 states of nigeria;med drs
who  are the head of hospital mgt boards in all 36 states of nigeria;med.drs
who are the chairmen of boards of all 36 state Hospital Mgt board;med drs
who are the Chief medical directors of all teaching hospitals in  Nigeria; med.drswho are the medical directors of all general and cntral hospitals in Nigeria;med.drs
who are the head of all unit hospitals in nigeria;med drs

What you are saying here is quite absurd. Please can you point at how many countries where the posts you indicate here except maybe the minister of health is not a medical doctor? Who do you think is best qualified to be a Chief medical director? A physiotherapist?

ikennahill:

as you can see,med.drs are the one that killed health services because they think like Hitler and want to kill other health care professionals in the country.see what they did in the recent health bill,where they want to start regulating others.you are not an optometrist but you are intrested in optometrists salary,you are not a radiographer but you want to stop the Ph.D programme of radiographer because people will call them doctors.you are not a pharmacist but you want to sto Pharm .D programme and have done everything to stop it that is why you want the minister of health to have power to regulate the length of training ,content of training of others in the new health bill.you got comess but tried to frustrate others from getting cohess,you want good life but want others to die in poverty and you think you will succed./9ja med drs are funny.medcine is a first degree, optometry is a first degree.

This claim of yours that medical doctors try to stop phD programs of other health services sounds quite suspicious. Do you have evidence for this?

ikennahill:

medical drs are doctors, optometrists are doctors,medcine is 6yrs ,optometry is 6yrs, medcine is a health care professional ,optometry is a health care professionals, medcine threat diesases and disorders, optometry treat diseases and disorders,medcine prescribe medication ,optometry do the same,no medical doctor can match a succesful optometrist any whrer in the world.optometrsis make their money cooly ,medical doctors make their money crying

Do optometrists perform surgeries? Can optometrists take deliveries? While your comparisons look good on the surface, a little probing shows the numerous flaws.

@thermometre ,how did you know that medical doctors are widely trained than other health care professionals like optometrist.have you gone through other health professionals training .You are just sitting in a shade and claim that you can still see the moon.funny man.just like the blind men that went to visit elephant and they all discribed various parts of the elephant as blind people.

yeah,Nma fought the training of pharmacists in Pharm.D,it is no secret at all,their stand was even published on Newspapers,but they could not suceed,that is why they tried to get at other health care professionals using the new health bill where one useless section said the minister of health can determine the type  of training ,length and content of training any health care professional will have.they failed here again,jonathan did not sign it.shame on them.

They are not only heading hospitals with its consequences and when they fail they blamed government,funny people.when you dont want others to sleep,then dont expect sleep.they now want to head other health care professionals  in their own department,eg a pathologist who is a medical doctor want to head medical lab scientists,but it failed again.what we have here in nigeria are funny people called medical doctor that think that they know EVERYTHING.
Medical directors should direct medical doctors while hospital adminstrators run the hospitals.Before ransome kuti deceived the then head of state hospitals was been run by hospital administrators and the result was very clear for all to see.medical doctors are quacks in field of administration, even if they like let them do 1 month crash course in management,that does not make them a professionals,they are quacks in hospital administration and when you see their twisting of simple government circulars to supress others ,you will agree with me that they are full blown quacks.

Medical doctor here made our health sector the most unpeaceful sector in the country and the sector that have the most litigation in court.SHAME ON THEM,FACE THE TRUTH AND BLAME YOUR PROFESSION,THEY COULD NOT HANDLE LEADERSHIP FORCED ON THEM BY RANSOME KUTI.They kept on fighting optometrists,etcgo through their ,it is on the allowance of optometrists because of the title 'dr'the optometrists have,which pharmacist will soon get.see in nasarawa state as far back as 2002 teachers are been paid call duty allowance,so i dont undersand some STUPID med.drs stand on lawful allowance of optometrist, but i am happy that they are failing in most of the states and one day,very soon, they will go to jail for all their wicked acts.give me your email and you will get thes evidence.they refuse to be up loaded.it is very large.do you know that a medical doctor was appointed by the minister of health to head physiotherapy board of nigeria,but  he could not cope and physios resisted this.do you know that in one ss states of nigeria a diplomate in ophthalmology was made the chairman of the states oral health when dentsists abound, and you know what, he contacted a dentsit to write Gov.s welcome address,when dentsists heard it they were not happy,but what can they do, they are perpertual slaves of medical doctors in their so called NMA and are hiding under them,that is why dentistry is almost a dead profession in nigeria.

physicians (consultants),they dont do surgeries does it make them less doctors than the surgeon,pathologists deal mainly with pathophysiologies,are they not doctors,radiologists dont do surgeries are they not important,phychiatrists dont do surgeries are they not important ,performing surgery is not the denominator of who is better,in zambia,kenya,india,etc there are those called catarct surgeons, they are neither med.drs nor nurses ,they are trained on just how to remove cataract,surgery is a question of regulation and there is nothing too big in it.Once you have the regulation you will be trained and you do it.
Optometry law in this country is old, optometrist should start agitating for surgical role as seen in some states in USA,i think this will make Med.Drs been deceived by ophthalmologists to leave them alone and talk for peace.It has happened in many countries.

making delivery does not make one a special person,nurses do that,traditional birth attendants do that.

do medical drs fly aeroplanes,do medical produce drugs,do medical doctors stand for a defendant or plantiff in court as his lawyers,do medical drs design buildings,cars,even medical equipment. wake up and leave other alone face your profession and stop trying to regulate others

ikennahill:

@thermometre ,how did you know that medical doctors are widely trained than other health care professionals like optometrist.have you gone through other health professionals training .You are just sitting in a shade and claim that you can still see the moon.funny man.just like the blind men that went to visit elephant and they all discribed various parts of the elephant as blind people.

Actually, there is information online showing this. You may check here and here for comparison.

ikennahill:

yeah,Nma fought the training of pharmacists in Pharm.D,it is no secret at all,their stand was even published on Newspapers,but they could not suceed,that is why they tried to get at other health care professionals using the new health bill where one useless section said the minister of health can determine the type  of training ,length and content of training any health care professional will have.they failed here again,jonathan did not sign it.shame on them.

This is news to me. Could you please provide a link showing this?

ikennahill:

They are not only heading hospitals with its consequences and when they fail they blamed government,funny people.when you dont want others to sleep,then dont expect sleep.they now want to head other health care professionals  in their own department,eg a pathologist who is a medical doctor want to head medical lab scientists,but it failed again.what we have here in nigeria are funny people called medical doctor that think that they know EVERYTHING.

And as the judicial system, the educational system and the infrastructure fail, who is generally accused?

ikennahill:

Medical directors should direct medical doctors while hospital adminstrators run the hospitals.Before ransome kuti deceived the then head of state hospitals was been run by hospital administrators and the result was very clear for all to see.medical doctors are quacks in field of administration, even if they like let them do 1 month crash course in management,that does not make them a professionals,they are quacks in hospital administration and when you see their twisting of simple government circulars to supress others ,you will agree with me that they are full blown quacks.

I think before Ransome Kuti based on the date you gave, pretty much everything was better. This is why I pointed out that you were making a fallacious argument.

ikennahill:

Medical doctor here made our health sector the most unpeaceful sector in the country and the sector that have the most litigation in court.SHAME ON THEM,FACE THE TRUTH AND BLAME YOUR PROFESSION,THEY COULD NOT HANDLE LEADERSHIP FORCED ON THEM BY RANSOME KUTI.They kept on fighting optometrists,etcgo through their ,it is on the allowance of optometrists because of the title 'dr'the optometrists have,which pharmacist will soon get.see in nasarawa state as far back as 2002 teachers are been paid call duty allowance,so i dont undersand some silly med.drs stand on lawful allowance of optometrist, but i am happy that they are failing in most of the states and one day,very soon, they will go to jail for all their wicked acts.give me your email and you will get thes evidence.they refuse to be up loaded.it is very large.do you know that a medical doctor was appointed by the minister of health to head physiotherapy board of nigeria,but  he could not cope and physios resisted this.do you know that in one ss states of nigeria a diplomate in ophthalmology was made the chairman of the states oral health when dentsists abound, and you know what, he contacted a dentsit to write Gov.s welcome address,when dentsists heard it they were not happy,but what can they do, they are perpertual slaves of medical doctors in their so called NMA and are hiding under them,that is why dentistry is almost a dead profession in nigeria.

So what if in Nassarawa teachers are paid call duty allowance does that mean all workers should be paid a call duty allowance?
I don't see why you're even comparing optometrists to dentists. They're both quite different.

ikennahill:

physicians (consultants),they dont do surgeries does it make them less doctors than the surgeon,pathologists deal mainly with pathophysiologies,are they not doctors,radiologists dont do surgeries are they not important,phychiatrists dont do surgeries are they not important ,performing surgery is not the denominator of who is better,in zambia,kenya,india,etc there are those called catarct surgeons, they are neither med.drs nor nurses ,they are trained on just how to remove cataract,surgery is a question of regulation and there is nothing too big in it.Once you have the regulation you will be trained and you do it.
Optometry law in this country is old, optometrist should start agitating for surgical role as seen in some states in USA,i think this will make Med.Drs been deceived by ophthalmologists to leave them alone and talk for peace.It has happened in many countries.

making delivery does not make one a special person,nurses do that,traditional birth attendants do that.

do medical drs fly aeroplanes,do medical produce drugs,do medical doctors stand for a defendant or plantiff in court as his lawyers,do medical drs design buildings,cars,even medical equipment. wake up and leave other alone face your profession and stop trying to regulate others

My point here was simply to show that medical doctors are more widely trained than optometrists.

My dear thermometre,your post is funny. wikipedia does not show the training of health care professionals.Get the transcript or curriculum of optometrists and check it with the one of medical doctors.that is the right thing you should do.you can get this from any Optometry school,ABSU<UNIBEN<IMSU

Yes medical doctors fought aganist pharm.D programme of pharmacy and Ph.D of radiographers,see below for just two proofs.if you need more i will send to you.

Before 1984 our health system was superb,please go and ask.it was after medical doctors who are quacks in administration came on board and started twisting govt circulars to suit them and supress others that we started having heavy problems and here we are. Our judiary cannot be compared to health, our health system is near total collaspse.it would have collasped finally if jonathan had signed the poisoned bill into law.Nobody is comparing optometrist with dentist,dentists are unfortunate slaves of NMA,are they growing as aprofession in Nigeria? the answer is total NO .medical doctors have made sure they cant grow ,do you wonder why a diplomate in ophthalmology was made the chairman of oral health of a state full of dentists.it is a funny place called health sector in nigeria .
i gave you that quote because medical doctors deceive others claiming that call duty is exclusive for them and they fight others that it has been approved for in some states but have been failing in their bid ,what they dont know is that one day they will be called to answer for their wickedness all in name of politics.
they should hide their face in shame ,they brought serious diharmony to our health system becuase of their NAZI tendencies and the holocaust they have caused will take years to clean.but thank God for democracy if it is military again,may be they would have suceeded in poisoning the health sector once again with this poison called health bill.

Funny enough they organised market women that do not know anything about the content of the bill, paid them money to demostrate.they have been exposed.

pls see for yourself.it is from thisday 2007.why will medical doctors be intrested in another persons training.I know you are aware of their teachery but this will further confirm it for you.

kindly see another.there are newspaper quoted.kindly get them.read through and you will see the real problem is medical doctors.WHAT IS THEIR BUSSINESS IN ANOTHER PERSONS TRAINING.THAT IS THE SAME THING THEY DO IN OTHER PEOLE SALARY AND THINK THEY WILL HAVE PEACE.ONE DAY THE ANGER OTHERS HAVE AGANIST THEM WILL EXPLODE AND HEAVEN HELP NIGERIAN PATIENTS.