The Nigeria Medical Association NMA has warned that it would join forces with the resident doctors should the government fail to pay all their due wages and allow the strike to linger.
NMA disclosed this in a statement issued on Friday and signed by its Chairman on Inter Affiliate Affairs, Dr Rosemary Uzowulu.
The statement titled, “High cost of governance maintained yet payment of doctors to avert health sector destruction a failure from government”, chided both Federal and State Governments for the lingering strike action of the National Association of Resident Doctors, NARD which had paralyzed hospitals across the country to the detriment of the Nigerian people.
The body of doctors accused the political leaders of playing a game with the health of Nigerians because they could afford overseas medical treatment.
The statement partly read: “it is most unfortunate that budget allocation for newspapers for assembly members, state governors, the presidency is approved and implemented within days of signing by Mr President, and yet the residency training allocation budgeted and endorsed cannot be implemented.
“The country in face of the high cost of governance has decided to use the health of her subject to play chess game where king and queens display the power of crown by killing their guards.
“I call on well-meaning Nigerians across the country to quickly put a stop to the strike by mandating those concerned including the state governors for state hospitals to pay the resident doctors all their due wages or stand the chance of black cloud collapse from NMA if the battle lingers.”
