By Olasunkanmi Akoni
Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State has said the state government fulfilled its part of the agreement to pay the new negotiated wage regime for medical doctors in the state before they went on another strike, even as he appealled to the doctors to have a rethink in the interest of the public.

He also urged the people, while commissioning and handing over various rural electrification projects to communities in Ikorodu Local Government Area of the state, to go out en masse to cross check their names when the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, commence the claims and objections exercise nationwide this week in order to ensure that their names were not replaced with that of ‘Mike Tyson,” as experienced in the last exercise.

Fashola, who spoke at the 2011 Annual Interdenominational Divine Service organised by the Lagos State Chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN,  at the Apostolic Church International Convention Grounds, Ketu, explained that the state fulfilled its part of the bargain to ensure that immediately the budget was signed, the payment will commence.

He noted that this was done by convening an Extra-ordinary Executive Council meeting on February 3, 2011, following the signing of the budget on January 31 to approve the memo for the new wages and allowances, but surprisingly the next day, the strike started.

He said: “Presently, my salary in a month is N883,338.00 while a member of the State Executive Council earns a little over N500,000 monthly.

“The reality of the new wage we are offering is that the most junior doctor moves from N110,000 per month to N170,000 while the senior doctors moved from about 360,000 to over 700,000 per month,” he added.