- Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, on
Wednesday insisted that his government would still apply the 'no work, no pay'
policy on the striking doctors in public hospitals whose action has entered
third day.
He also said he was very fulfilled and happy to take his exit from
governance because he has succeeded in delivering all electoral promises made
to the people in eight years.
Fashola spoke at the commissioning of the newly built cardiac and renal
centre at Gbagada General Hospital, Lagos.
He disclosed that the state government was not owing any doctor his
legitimately earned salary but the decision not to pay striking workers is not
a policy of his government "but one that was enacted by a Federal
Act".
Fashola explained that the said salary which the doctors were demanding
was not earned and so not legitimate.
"Doctors should understand that the issue about doctors who go on
strike is not my choice. It is a provision of the Trade Dispute Act. It
prescribes very clearly that if people go on strike, they will not be entitled
to pay.
"They
must also understand that the period when they went on strike was when we had
Ebola. That was when we needed them most.
"That was the period when doctors who have no stake in this
country, foreigners, came to serve. Those who own this country did not serve
and so, we did not owe them for any period they went on strike," he
stated.
The governor, however, emphasised that "the doctors know we have
paid them for January and February and by the policy on ground, we will pay
them for March up to the period that they stopped working."
He therefore appealed to the striking doctors to return to work
warningthat "otherwise, we will be compelled again to apply the law. They
just cannot get paid for work that they did not do."
Fashola revealed that the Cardiac Centre built by government was being
managed by a team of concessionaire, Tamda Renescor, who won the bid for five
years, renewable on performance.
The governor recounting his achievements noted: "With five
Independent Power Plants in Akute, Lagos Island, Alausa Ikeja, Mainland GRA and
Lekki, 10 brand new maternal and child centres with 100 beds each, a new school
of nursing in Igando-Alimosho, Primary Health Centres in Epe with 24 hour
lighting by solar, a light rail system whose construction is making progress in
spite of huge odds, represent some of our problem solving interventions that
have shown the difference between us and an amateurish government led by the
PDP.
"Today, my chest is pumped up, my head raised, my heart is full of
pride and I can say thank you, and very well done to our team, as we open the
Gbagada Cardiac and Renal Hospital to serve our people," he stated.
He said the state had to take the lead to construct the new Cardiac
Centre in 2008 after the news broke that former Head of State, Umar Musa
Yar'Adua, was flown abroad for kidney related ailment.
Fashola said: "The turning point was when we exported President
Yar'Adua to a Saudi Arabia hospital to manage a kidney ailment.
"It was a low point for us because we have it on good authority
that the Saudi hospital was built by Nigerian doctors who left the Lagos
University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) in the 80s.
"The honourable Commissioner for Health informed me that there were
up to 20,000 Nigerian medical personnel, who were living and working overseas.
"Many of them, whom I met on my travels, complained that they
wanted to come home and practise but there was no hospital comparable to where
they were accustomed to working. I told them, we will do something."
By Yinka Shokunbi
Daily Independent
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