NIGERIAN STRIKING DOCTORS AND THE REST OF US

As at the time of writing this note, medical doctors in government hospitals are on strike. This is quite unfortunate as Nigerians who are sick have no one to attend to them. The doctors are groused because the federal government has reneged in meeting up with the agreement they both reached in 2013. They are clamouring for the appointment of a Surgeon-General of the Federation; they also want a review of their hazard allowance to a whooping One hundred thousand naira; and a host of other flimsy demands.

I have sat and thought about the present situation; I have also tried to reason and come out with the following questions that need urgent clarifications.

Why are doctors quick to withdraw their services at the slightest provocation? Is it really ethical for doctors to go on strike? Again, can policemen, prison staff, the armed forces and other essential public servants go on strike? What will happen if the security agencies go on strike? Are the services the security agents render as essential as that of the doctors and other health workers?

Yes, let’s reason it. Security agents don’t go on strike because their services are very essential to the survival of the society. If so, why should doctors embark on strike? Is their service not essential to the survival of the society too? Doctors, security agents, bankers, nurses, and other health workers are what I call essential public servants. Just like the policeman, the soldier, the prison warder, the road safety personnel, the SSS agents etc, the doctor is an essential public servant whose service is very essential, and he or she is naturally and ethically not supposed to embark on strike action for whatever reason.

Think about this, what will happen if the police go on strike? Would the society, including the doctors, sleep with their two eyes closed? What will the situation be if the prison staff down their tools and unman the prison gates? Will the society not collapse? Or when the armed forces, road safety personnel, and other security staff embark on industrial action? What will happen?

Or do the doctors think these security personnel have no issues to iron out with the government too? They do! They have lots of issues with the government, but the fact is that they are essential public servants, and their primary concern is our collective good before parochial interest. To be fair, the security agents are the most neglected among the workforce in Nigeria. If you think I am lying, visit a police station or a prison and see the decadence and the sorry conditions they work in. It is no news that the security personnel sacrifice their lives for the peace and security of this country, and afterwards, their families get nothing. Yet they don’t complain. Our security personnel are exposed to live threatening hazards which cannot be quantified in terms of allowances. Do you know the kind of occupational hazard the soldier and the prison warder face?

Methinks the problem bedeviling the health sector in Nigeria is just ego. The current strike by the doctors is as a result of their bloated ego. If not, what has the appointment of a Surgeon-General to do with the effective management of the nation’s hospitals? Again, how much hazard allowance can compensate the many risks they encounter in the course of discharging their duties? Are prison officers, policemen, soldiers and other essential public servants not exposed to bigger hazards and risks?

Yes, it is not like I am trying to exonerate the government from this problem, but the doctors should consider their profession as humanitarian, just like other essential public servants. The truth is that there is no amount of money that can compensate the risks we face in our various endeavours. Life itself is a risk. As a prison officer, I am faced with life threatening risks and hazards in the course of my job. Even at that, I am not paid any hazard allowance. So for the policeman, the armed forces personnel and other essential public servants.

Life is the ultimate. Doctors are there to save lives. They should think twice and begin to see themselves as life-savers instead of bureaucrats who are working to enrich their pockets only. Owing to the fact that doctors are essential public servants, it is therefore not ethical for them to embark on strike actions.

However, the government should sit up and provide the needs of its workers. Government should not wait until workers go on strike before they can address their problems. Government should be proactive and considerate to the plight of its workforce. The current strike by the doctors should be addressed as soon as possible so that Nigerians who are sick, like my sick mum, can be attended to.

This is a passionate appeal to our doctors to consider the plights of suffering Nigerians and call off the present strike, while they continue dialoguing with government. The striking doctors should also be realistic in some of their demands, as most of them hold no water. Just like the security personnel who cannot down their tools, the doctors should learn to press home their demands using other viable methods instead of resorting on strike actions. They should consider life first before any other thing. It is only ethical to do so.

An Open Letter To The CMD of Jos University Teaching Hospital

Dear sir,

Let me, first of all, congratulate you on your new appointment. I learnt from grapevine that you assumed the exalted office of CMD-JUTH only recently.

I had wanted to write you through your e-mail, or that of your hospital's, but you've got none on your website. I browsed through your offical website- www.juthnigeria.org/, a poorly managed website, but couldnt access your contacts nor that of the hospital. And that corroborates my suspicion that your hospital is poorly managed.

With all due respect, sir, I implore you to visit the website of LUTH or UNTH or UCH, then compare to yours. In this modern era, an institution as reputable as yours is still running a kindergarten-like website. Not even a contact phoneline nor e-mail, talk less of other social media like facebook page or twitter handle. Before writing you this piece of mine, I had browsed with my phone, through the website of John Hopkin's Hospital in Baltimore, USA. I was able to see the names and contacts of all the staff in John Hopkins. That is how a good hospital is run. From here in Jos, I will be able to contact a Gastro-Entronologist or a Puelmunatrogist in John Hopkins. That is not the case in JUTH. Even your contemporaries like UNTH and LUTH have efficient websites.

Back to the crux of the matter, I am writing you this letter to express my disgust for the inappropriate attitude of your staff. I am sorry to say, sir, that many of your staff don't deserve their appointment letters. Many of them are uncultured, sassy and pathologically insolent. I have been a daily visitor of JUTH for one month now, and I have come to terms with the indecorous misbehavior of your employees. Some of your doctors are truants, while some of your nurses are lackadaisical in performing their duties. It is a sorry situation that my diabetic mum who has been in your hospital for a month now, is not properly attended to. A doctor that is supposed to monitor her sugar level has being AWOL for the past three weeks, leaving my mum to her fate.

Our leaders know all the rots in our health sector, and that is why they don't patronise local hospitals like yours. All of them seek medical care abroad because they are weary of the medical brutality in our local hospitals.

Sir, I am not writing this letter to demean you nor your reputable institution, but to correct an anomaly. I urge you to work on the attitude of your workforce. Most of your staff are pompous, negligent and unprofessional. Your doctors and nurses feel like demi-gods. They lack the qualities their professions demand.

Please sir, do something quick before it gets out of hand. I wish I can afford to fly my mum to India or Saudi Arabia or John Hopkins for medical care. I wish!

Thank you sir, as I await a change in your staff's attitude.

Kelvin Ugwuoke
Jos, Plateau state.

A LETTER TO THE CHIBOK GIRLS

Dear girls,

I write to commiserate with you on your adoption by the dreaded militant cum terrorist group: Boko haram. I must commend you all for your gallantry of still being alive up till this moment which I have chosen to write. You have all tried. The fact that you are still waxing stronger is an indication that our prayers are working.

Let me inform you that at the moment, the federal government is working tirelessly to rescue you. They have invited the almighty US security experts to help in search of all of you. Even the Chinese, French, Canadians and others so numerous to mention have join in the search for you. We are reliably informed that you were captured and taken to the dreaded Sambisa Forest, the forest which has become a colony of the fools who abducted you. The once tourist attraction is now the den of terrorists.

However, you have to take your destinies in your hands. Just yesterday, I heard that four of you escaped from the claws of these insurgents. What bravery! Yes that is the spirit. You must take your destinies in your hands. The government seems hapless. The probability of you regaining freedom is bleak, if we abide by government’s actions and inaction. That is why I urge you to take your destinies in your hands. At the slightest lapse by your captors, take advantage of it and flee for your lives. You are smarter than them, show them your cleverness; show them the stuff you are made of, show them that they are fools.

We are all praying for you. Since your captors carried you away, we’ve been praying. However, some of us were not lucky as you. In Jos, as much as over two hundred people have lost their lives as a result of the evil acts of your captors. Also in Borno and Yobe states, your captors have invaded and killed many innocent villagers. They’ve also killed many a security personnel. And that is why we thank God for your lives.  

I have high hopes that you will all come back alive. I have the greatest conviction that you will take your destinies in your hands. I believe in you. Take the bold step at their slightest security breakdown. Take the bold step like your colleagues who have taken their destinies in their hands. They are now free and have reunited with their loved ones. Your siblings are in anguish, your parents have sobbed and sobbed. Your schoolmates are in mental distress. Your community is mourning and the whole nation standstill for you. Today was democracy day; we did not celebrate. Two days ago was children’s day, we refuse to parade because we hold you in high esteem. Truly, nobody is happy; nobody is ready to celebrate.

We can’t wait to see you free. It will be the greatest joy of all if you are free. We know how difficult your lives will be now. Your abductors may be feasting on you and trying to make you adapt to their cruel ways, but I know that you are smarter than them. Show them that Nigerians are smart people. We hear they are foreigners, non-Nigerians! We hear they are cowards who wouldn’t show their faces. I know you are smarter than them. Make them look like fools. Escape alive! However, you must not endanger your lives. You must make sure the coast is clear before you take the bold step. Just like I told you, you are smarter than them!

I will continue to pray for you. My daughter, Onyinye, will continue to expect your coming back home. She is anxious to see all of you. She’s being asking me: “Daddy, when will I see my chibok sisters so that I will stop crying at night?” If I have any inkling of how to bring you home, or the capacity to free you girls, I would be the first person to come and kick those evil asses at Sambisa forest, and bring you home alive; If that can stop my lovely 10-days old daughter from screaming at night.

We can’t wait for you to return.

Warmest regards from Onyinye.