BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

BENIN—Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, yesterday, described the ongoing nationwide warning strike embarked upon by the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, as provocative, warning doctors in the state to go back to work or forget about their salaries.
Oshiomhole stated this at a meeting with the Association of Resident Doctors, Medical and Dental Consultants Association at Government House, Benin City.

He said: “If you have any grievances you are obliged by law, you are obliged by tradition, you are actually compelled by your own oath, not to abandon your patients.

“The facts are not in dispute because doctors under the employment of Edo State Government are not staff of the Federal Government.

“The Federal Government has no hand in your employment, no hand in your promotion and they have no hand in your posting. How we find money to pay, the Federal Government has no hand in it.

“So, I believe that even if we are to talk in the context of employer-employee relationship, you are obliged by law to state the particulars of your grievances to your employer.

“There is nothing in the convention or the law that allows you to simply walk out of your job. The fact that your colleagues under Federal employment had dispute and they sought meeting with the Minister of Health, those are meetings between your colleagues and the Federal Government. How is Edo State a part of that?

“I expect that if you feel obliged to go on that strike, you should inform us that the strike is inevitable. I do understand the logic and essence of solidarity, but in this business, before  you resort to solidarity action, people who are themselves directly involved in the dispute may choose on their own to first go on strike.”

Responding, Dr. Eghe Abe said the association would convene to take a dispassionate consideration of the governor’s address and do what was in the interest of the state.