Oshiomhole describes health workers’ strike as blackmail

By Simon Ebegbulem
BENIN—GOVERNOR Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State yesterday broke his silence on the three-week-old strike action embarked upon by health workers in the state, describing it as a blackmail and ill conceived.

He  hinted that he would not be blackmailed into fixing a date for the implementation of the new salary scale for health workers as approved by the Federal Government and urged the health workers to resume duties, to give room for negotiation.

Meanwhile, the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria, MDCAN, Edo State Hospitals Management Board, in a statement  by its chairman, Dr. Chris Eigbe and Secretary, Dr. Eghe Abe, appealed to both the striking workers and government to come to the negotiating table, regretting that the strike was already affecting the citizens of the state.

Oshiomhole, who spoke while declaring open the Annual General and Scientific Conference of the Nigeria Medical Association, NMA, in Benin-City, said,  “Edo State government under my leadership will not fix a date for the implementation of an agreement, which  has not been discussed.

“I think I have not refused, if I intend to refuse, I will say so. I insist that we must discuss how the agreement applies to us.

‘Edo workers not inferior’

“I am happy you recall that I came here last year not with protest and I said negotiations were going on in Abuja. I said Edo State government will not be hostile to the outcome because I believe that our own workers are not inferior to federal workers.

“Therefore, I cannot accept that my doctors be treated as inferiors. I said when they are done, Edo State government will be quite happy to implement. But I did not say I am going to do it from January because I will not be more Catholic than the Pope”, he added.

“The Federal Government with whom you started negotiation, when did they start the implementation?” How could I have started before those who authored the agreement?

The Governor argued that as the Governor of the state,  he was accountable to the people of the state, noting “that I am not in Benin to take orders from Abuja. I am in Benin to provide leadership to Edo State. And what I do or failed to do will be based on conviction.

“It is unimaginable that because I said I was committed to reviewing the conditions of service of our workers, that I have denied myself therefore the right to sit down with the same workers, to discuss how this agreement will affect them. I fail to understand that.

I thought you will say that because I threatened that I will not implement it,  that is why the workers are angry and went on strike. I don’t know where I have gone wrong,” he said.