By Festus Ahon
BENIN CITY — STRIKING health workers in Edo State, under the aegis of the Joint Action Committee, JAC, yesterday, rejected the state government’s proposal for it to call off the strike action before it could commence negotiation with the Committee.

But the new leadership of the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, led by Dr. Philip Ugbodaga, while urging the state government and the health workers to return to the negotiation table, asked the state government to commence “frank and genuine negotiations” with the striking workers with a view to implement in full, the recent Federal Government approved CONMESS/CONHESS for health workers.

He said, “this is the only and surest way to stop an impending and catastrophic internal brain drain in the state health sector”. Dr Ugbodaga, who addressed newsmen to  introduce the newly elected state executive of the NMA,  which also produced Dr Emmanuel Ighodaro as Secretary, regretted that the masses of the state had suffered untold hardship, adding  that there was the need for government to make concerted effort to stop the strike.

It will be recalled that Governor Adams Oshiomhole had asked the striking health workers to go back to work before government would commence negotiations. But Dr. Ugbodaga, who disclosed that the leadership of the JAC had informed him that they rejected government’s proposal,  lamented that the remuneration of health workers in the Edo State Hospital Management Board “is most unrealistic and need an urgent overhaul.”

He frowned at what he described as the continuous deterioration in the availability and affordability of health care,  especially in the rural areas and called on the Federal Government to place a ban on government sponsorship for medical trips abroad.

“Health care related issues now feature very insignificantly in the manifestoes of Nigerian politicians seeking elective offices. All these constitute a threat to social stability in our country. It is now a norm for our political office holders to travel abroad for the treatment of ailments that can be handled in our nation’s hospital often times at great strain to our national economy,” he added.