The striking members of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) on Monday refused to resume work despite the Federal Government’s plea for them to return to work.
NARD’s President, Dr Uyilawa Okhuaihesuyi, said the government was delaying the payment of resident doctors’ Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF) totalling N5.4 billion.
The association accused the Ministry of Labour and Employment of deliberately sabotaging the Budget Office’s efforts to pay its members’ Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF) for 2020 and 2021.
Speaking with The Nation on Monday, Okhuaihesuyi said: “Concerning Ngige saying doctors should go back to work if it was him, would he have gone back to work? He is just being wicked.
“For example, in the case of the Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF), money has already been released to the IPPIS office and they have loaded it into the system, but they put a stop to the payment.
“They wrote to the Ministry of Health asking them to give them the okay to pay the money. N4.8bn was paid to them for the payment of the MRTF for 2021.
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“Meanwhile, the one not paid for 2020, they are not even talking about it again. But the money has been released to the budget office.”
Okhuaihesuyi added, “The money for the MRTF was released from the budget office which is in two tranches. It is supposed to be payment for 2020 MRTF that was omitted and 2021. For 2020, it is about N608 million and for 2021, it is about N4.8 billion.
“The members have been verified and payment is actually supposed to be made but because of their mischief, the money has been released to the IPPIS office and they have confirmed the amount to be paid and the system has been loaded.
“However, the payment cannot be done because some powers that be put an embargo on payment of the MRTF. Ngige is the one running everything, while the Ministry of Health has gone to sleep.
“The Ministry of Labour is the one in charge of everything. It took us to court, instituted no work no pay, and stopped them from paying us the MRTF. His plan is to break us, but I hope he doesn’t end up breaking himself because so many people have been in his position and have left. He won’t be there forever.
“We had an electronic National Executive Council (NEC) meeting today (yesterday), where we briefed our members on the outcome of everything. We were given the mandate that the strike can continue. We have an AGM on Friday where we are going to revisit and go through all the strike actions.”
