Doctors in their numbers yes­terday in Abuja protested gov­ernment’s directive that the residency program be suspended in Federal Government hospitals.
For the first time in years, doctors dressed in their white overalls carried placards in protest. Some of the placards bore captions such as “Sack­ing doctors is not the an­swer”; “Sack Chukwu now” and “Haba Chukwu has mis­led Jonathan”. The doctors who took their protest to the Wuse Zone 4 headquarters of the Nigerian Medical As­sociation (NMA) demanded explanation from the leader­ship of the association, even as they condemned the step taken by government.
On Thursday the Fed­eral Ministry of Health an­nounced the immediate suspension of the residency program in a statement signed by its Deputy Direc­tor Press, Isiaka Yusuf. The statement identified the re­fusal of doctors to return to work especially with the emergence of the Ebola Vi­rus Disease (EVD) as the major reason behind the min­istry’s directive.
The Federal Govern­ment has therefore decided that residency training pro­gramme in Federal Govern­ment hospitals be suspended pending the conclusion of the ongoing appraisal of the challenges in the health sec­tor”.
Obviously shaken by government’s directive, the protesting doctors led by the Vice chairman of the NMA Abuja chapter, Dr Chidozie Achonwa requested the na­tional secretariat to take ac­tion. Achonwa said: “ When you understand the role of resident doctors, you will understand that by this ac­tion the Nigerian government has closed down all federal hospitals. It has closed down all medical schools. By this news, government has said they don’t need specialists in the country again. Today we are here to ask our national executive if what we heard yesterday (Thursday) is true and what they are going to do if it is true.”
Taking a similar position, the President of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), Dr. Jubril Abdullahi condemned what he said was the sack of doc­tors in their thousands. He said: “Yesterday, out of the blues the government of the federation out of despera­tion sacked a segment of the NMA. The question is- could this be their response to the strike or is it how they want to solve the crisis? For us (resident doctors) we are here to ask the leadership of the NMA for the answers. We are here to ask if it is true that the Federal government has stopped the residency programme and effectively sacked 16,000 senior civil servants”. The National Pres­ident of the NMA Dr Kayode Obembe who resurfaced to address the doctors despite his resignation weeks back, said the NMA would resist moves to intimidate them. He described the ministry’s directive as illegal, just as he argued that doctors were fighting for a just course with the ongoing strike. He noted that law established the residency programme and no government official had the power
In the same vein, former NMA President, Dr Osahon Enabulele has said that the decision of the President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan-led Federal Government to suspend Residency Training Program (RTP) in Nigeria and sack over 16, 000 Resi­dent doctors and would-be Specialist Medical doctors and dentists is a most un­statesmanly, unsustainable and ill-advised approach to­wards the resolution of the challenges in the health sec­tor. He said it is undoubtedly an unproductive decision capable of further worsening the crisis and the challenges in the health sector.
According to him,”this latest action of the Federal Government clearly indi­cates that most of our po­litical office holders hardly learn lessons from history, or else why would a govern­ment in this 21 st century ap­ply a most draconian option that never succeeded even under the military regime of General Muhammadu Buhari in 1985 or the infamous au­thoritarian dismissal of 774 doctors by the Babatunde Raji Fashola-led Lagos state government in 2012.
“The negative conse­quences of this government decision are unimaginable. For one, the current poor health indices of Nigeria will further nose dive, especially on account of the immense dearth of skilled medical manpower in Nigeria.
Currently, Nigeria has an abysmal doctor-patient popu­lation ratio of 1: 6,300. With this action of government the ratio will further decline to about 1:15, 500.Nigeria has less than 3,000 specialists medical and dental practitio­ners (consultants) providing specialist medical and den­tal care to over 170million Nigerians. There are lots of Nigerian trained medical specialists constantly migrat­ing to countries with better work conditions/conditions of service and enabling envi­ronment.”

NMA protests sack of doctors, says FG insincere