Osun's Governor Aregbesola gives striking doctors seven days to return or face the sack

OSUN State governor Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has given striking doctors who have laid down tools since September in protest over the non-payment of their salaries seven days to return to work or face the sack.   Like most of Nigeria's states, Osun owes its civil
servants several months' salary arrears and its doctors like its teachers and several other categories of workers face a very bleak Christmas. Medical doctors in the state have been on strike since September 28, refusing to go to work until they are paid.  

Exasperated with the strike, Governor Aregbesola handed the doctors a seven-day ultimatum, threatening that anyone who fails to return to their duty post would be considered to have voluntarily resigned his or her appointment. Governor Aregbesola's spokesman Sunday Olajide, said the striking doctors did not show understanding like other labour unions in the face of the present financial challenges confronting the state.  

Mr Olajide added:  “Despite a series of appeals from the government to medical doctors at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, the Teaching Hospital, Osogbo and other government health institutions, to show understanding during this period of national challenges on public finance, the striking doctors have remained adamant.

It is lamentable that the doctors have continued to draw their salaries over the last two months and still remain at home, thus eating their cake and still having it.”   Describing the strike as illegal, the government said they did not follow due process, thereby breaching their professional Hippocratic Oath.

According to Mr Olajide, while all other professional workers in the public service of Osun State have been showing understanding and are offering useful solutions, medical doctors have chosen to remain on strike for more than two months, thereby paralysing government policy on health services to the people.



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