The Lagos state governor has fired 1000 doctors for
embarking on an industrial action over Consolidated Medical Salary Scale
(CONMESS). The Lagos Medical Council yesterday began employing other doctors some
of whom are making hasty switch from private firms to fill the vacuum created
by the sacked striking doctors. Speaking on Workers’ Day celebration May 1st,
the governor had insisted he will not pay any wage or salary determined by the
federal government.
The doctors on their part have gone to court to challenge
the governor’s refusal to pay CONMESS which Lagos state government consented to
13 months ago. Meanwhile, a substantive suit barring the doctors from strike at
the Industrial Court is pending. The faceoff between the two has reached a
point that can best be described as a fight between two elephants leaving the
grass underneath them to suffer. Many Lagosians are dependent on the doctors
for treatment.
While we do not support the medical profession for
embarking on a strike as it is apparent that all forms of dialogue have not
been exhausted, we do not condone the Lagos state government led by Babatunde
Fashola for being hasty as to sack experienced doctors over an industrial
dispute. This singular act of his is showing not only bad faith but a lack of
sincerity on the part of government that ascribes to being democratic or
sympathetic to the cause of the electorate.
True, the Lagos state government might not in their
analysis be able to pay CONMESS, but it should have known that when the scheme
was brought up. Governance requires proactive consideration and having a
foresight on issues with a view to protecting the peoples’ rights and interests
always. There never was another purpose for governance other than the
preservation of the peoples’ welfare and security. With governments in Nigeria
showing that there are other purposes for governance, one wonders whether it
would not be better to return to a Greek city state democracy where every man
spoke such that oppression is impossible.
Admittedly, the Lagos state government pays a lot better
wages to its doctors compared to the alternative private sector, but the
pressure and working conditions are significantly worse on the Lagos doctors
thus the need for even higher pay. Indeed, the Fashola administration has made
remarkable efforts to improve living in Lagos; it should not only be about
building roads and bridges, but about improving the living standard of the
lives in this emerging mega city. Lagosians deserve better just as the doctors
do deserve CONMESS.
The sack of these doctors brings to mind other issues. First,
the Lagos State University increased tuition and other fees by an astronomical
percentage implying that the institution had become a private school and then
the forced tolling of Lekki making it a private property for which visitors
must pay at every turn. Now the medical sector is the next target as there is
obviously an attempt to force people out of public hospitals leading to queues
at private hospitals where they are at the mercy of shylock doctors. Taxi drivers
are presently being asked to change their cars to brand new ones overnight, we
should not be surprised if we wake up tomorrow and find that public primary and
secondary schools have been shut for reasons like the above.
It is regrettable that there is a ploy even here in Lagos
to force people out of the few publicly enjoyed services with aim of pushing
them to live beyond their means. How does a government as popular as this one
justify these obviously anti-people policies and dictates that do not in any
way improve the living standard of an impoverished society?
The doctors may be wrong for contravening the Hippocratic
Oath but the Lagos state government has acted even worse by firing them hastily.
These trends are suggestive of the theory that there is a grand ploy to
depopulate Lagos by any means necessary. Governance has always and will always
be for the betterment of society and not to protect or make better the interest
of a rich few. Where a people are challenged by governance that is unfavourable
to them, it is the right of that people to think quickly and get that
government out. Lagosians agree that PDP is evil at the centre and chose a
lesser evil locally, but the turn of events has proven that this lesser evil is
striving hard to catch up with the devil at the centre. The silence of the
other opposition parties on issues like these where they should cash in shows
either complicity or mediocrity.
We urge the doctors to in interest of the dying sick
among us who need their skills and attention to please resume talks with the
government with a view to calling off the strike in the shortest time possible.
We also challenge the Lagos state government to remain true to its noble ideal
of being a pro-people administration by reneging on these anti-people policies
sacking of doctors being the latest in a growing list of oppressive governance.
Lagosians on the other hand must remain
vigilant and responsive as no one is expected to remain loyal to an oppressive
feudal lord but to rebel against them at the polls if the need arises.
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