Reflection on Lagos State Government’s Onslaught on Public Doctors
Reflection on Lagos State Government’s Onslaught on Public Doctors
The recent ridiculous mass sack of over
788 medical doctors by the Raji Fashola/CAN-led lagos State government clearly
underlines the high level of contempt which pro-free market ruling elites in
Nigeria of all shades hold the poor and working masses. In order to break the
fighting spirit of the doctors, the government went ahead, in an action
reminiscent of the military jackboot absolutism, to eject the doctors from
their quarters – an action that runs contrary to government’s own tenancy law.
This action of the Fashola government is a direct affront on the working and
poor people, who have borne all the anti-poor, pro-rich policies of the
Fashola/ACN government and its big brother Federal/PDP government.
Consequently, all genuinely progressive forces including the labour movement,
pro-labour organizations, civil society groups and other professional groups
must intervene in the current struggle of doctors in Lagos State. This is not
the struggle of the doctors alone, but indeed that of the soul of social
service. If the Lagos State government is allowed to have its way, aside this
opening the floodgate for massive onslaught on the working and poor people, it
will definitely lead to collapse of health service, which is already in
precarious state in Lagos State, while
engendering brain drain and further destruction of social service across the
country.
Merely looking at health statistics in
Lagos State alone, the flagship state and shining star of ACN - which has been
ruled by ACN party uninterruptedly since emergence of civil rule in 1999 – will
reveal the shameful character of Nigeria’s ruling elite, in particular the
Fashola/ACN government. The total population of public sector medical doctors
is around eight hundred. If we add an extra 700 private practitioners and those
on and federal government employment, then we will be having around 1, 500
medical doctors in the state. Given the average population of 15 million, this will
mean a doctor to more than 10, 000 persons. This is ten times the WHO average
standard. We should not even mention other comparative statistics like number
of medical beds to the population. Thus, when a supposedly progressive
government embark on mass sack of doctors, not because they committed murder, but
for seeking a modest improvement; then we should start to examine so many
things about the governance in Nigeria.
The government and its town criers in
the media have premised this ignoble action on the so-called flouting of the
Hippocratic Oath of the medical profession by embarking on warning strike. But
for a government that claims to be ‘guided’ by rule of law (please read rule of
pocket), one expected it to refer such to the appropriate professional
regulatory bodies to decide or go to court; and not to turn itself to the
accuser and the judge at the same time. In the real sense, this is just a
pretense, the reality is that the Fashola/ACN administration aim is to divert
public fund away from public use for the pecuniary interests of the ruling
cabal in power. It is the hypocritical government officials and politicians,
who continue to line their pockets with public resources, who are making
provision of safe public health a mirage in the country. It is on record that
the doctors have used all known administrative, friendly, and even conciliatory
means to resolve the issue for the past two years, but the Fashola/ACN
government had always met these initiatives with threat and brutal repression.
One of this is the sacking of the leader of the Medical Guild two years ago and
physical repression of other members of the guild for daring to effect a
similar on similar issue. Thus, it is highly hypocritical for anybody to claim
that workers have no right to use all democratic and civil means to protect
their welfare interest against the recalcitrant and irresponsible ruling elite.
According to the Medical Guild, what
they were simply asking for is the reversal of the obnoxious and undemocratic
demotion of its members under the guise of paying salaries. This means that
majority of the doctors will see as much as four-year demotion with the
government’s contemptuous and treacherous implementation of the wage scale for
medical doctors. Correcting this will only cost the state around N10 million a
month, a tiny fraction of what the state spend on frivolities such as salaries
and emoluments of political officers, shows, festivals, wasteful spending on
shindigs of party bigwigs, etc. The other demand is the payment of teaching
allowance for medical personnel on house jobs. These are graduates, who
undertake enormous work in hospitals, but are paid like casuals. While it is
true that they are learning through such process, the reality is that based on
the collapse of the health infrastructures and huge deficit in medical
personnel as highlighted above, these young minds have become the casualty of
the irresponsibility of the political class in uplifting health
infrastructures. This has made working environment frustrating for upcoming
doctors. It is only just for a responsible government to remunerate these young
professionals adequately, at least if only to mitigate the huge brain drain in
the system. It is a known fact that past governments, despite earning lesser
revenue than current governments – utilize incentives like bursaries,
scholarships, improved allowances to attract more people to professions that
are vital and dear to the society.
The excuse that state government cannot
be stampeded to pay a wage policy of the federal government is most cynical.
Why has the same principled not applied to the salaries of public and political
office holders in Lagos State, who are consuming the same obnoxious and
fraudulent emoluments as their federal colleagues. How can this set of people
claim that workers who do most of the work for which they get the credit should
not demand for a minimal improvement in their conditions? The excuse that there
will not be enough resources for development if workers are adequately
remunerated is blatant falsehood. In the real sense, the so-called development
is elite oriented. For instance, the so-called road construction projects of
the Fashola government have been at best one-sided.
While some roads are constructed, the
fact is that, on the basis of the fraudulent contract system that ensures
multiple inflation of contracts, such projects do not correspond with the huge
wealth at the disposal of the state for the past five years (over N3 trillion).
In addition, the projects are lopsided with most of the community and local
roads abandoned by the state and local governments. Aside this is the bankrupt
concession/public-private partnership policy which hand over public properties
and infrastructures procured with public funds to private big business to make
huge profit. The Lekki-Epe toll road and the BRT projects are immediate
examples. Take the housing policy; it is the same fraud: building public
housing that an average worker cannot dream of purchasing in years, which are
then handed over to middlemen and bankers, at public expense. We have also seen
the bankruptcy of the Fashola government in the education sector. The story of
Lagos State University (LASU), the only state owned university, where fees are
hiked by over 750 percent is still fresh. For several months, the academic
staff in the institution had to take on the state government for a minimal
increase in their wages, leading to closure of the campus. The recently
displayed media picture showing the Lagos State governor, Raji Fashola casting
vote at a dilapidated public primary school depict clearly the manner of
‘education reform’ the government is undertaking.
Therefore, the current attack on medical
doctors for demanding proper implementation of the an agreement is part of the
holistic policy of the Fashola/ACN government to undercut funding for social
and public service with a view to handing the resources to a handful of big
business and party bigwigs. One of the ways of achieving this is by attacking
strong sections of the organized working class. While leaderships of most of
the workers’ unions have been cowed or bought over, the Lagos State government
feels that it can isolate leaderships of some unions that stand up to it to
prevent others from waking up. If this attack is successful, it will embolden
the Fashola/ACN government to launch full-scale onslaught on workers and poor
people, who are already reeking in pains. This will not be limited to Lagos
State but will cut across all the states of the federation, as governors are
competing vigorously in setting pace for anti-poor, anti-worker policies. Indeed,
there is no fundamental difference among these ruling pro-big business
political parties (PDP, ACN, CPC, LP, APGA, etc) – they are all anti-poor and
corrupt.
The Medical Guild in Lagos State, while
must be commended for its steadfastness, must take the struggle beyond the
realm of mere administrative strike, they must engage the state government in
direct social struggle. This will mean a mass campaign amongst the masses of
Lagos through educative materials and mass rallies (in conjunction with genuine
pro-labour and labour activists). This should also link the struggle with call
for massive improvement in health facilities in the state. For instance, from a
conservative estimate, committing two billion naira into health sector in the
state will employ and pay annual salaries of over two hundred new medical
doctors and over four hundred medical staff. An extra one billion naira, if
judiciously utilized will expand health infrastructures (more hospital beds,
functional hospitals, etc). This is merely three billion naira, which is less
than 15 percent of Lagos monthly revenue. If the Fashola government (which is
expending energy and resources on repression of doctors in the last three
years) had done this in the past five years, the health system in Lagos would
not be in its current mess.
Moreover, the Medical Guild and NMA must
also reach out to other unions in the state, especially in-house unions in the
health sector. A newspaper recently reported a plan by other medical workers in
the employment of the state government to embark on strike over
non-implementation of CONHESS – the health workers’ salary scale. Also, federal
government health workers in the state are currently on strike. These struggles
need to be coordinated, especially among state employed health workers and
medical doctors. This is vital in order to avoid a divide-and-rule policy of
the Lagos State government. Quoting one the leaders of Medical and Health
Workers’ Union (MHWUN), Mr. Rashid Bamishe in an interview, he had said, “Nobody should
see our action as sympathy to doctors’ strike. We have issues that are known to
the world, and which even the doctors are aware of. But they (doctors) have not
included our issue in their strike. How will anybody think of sympathy?”
(Guardian, May 12, 2012). This is unfortunate. Agreed that the leaders of the
Medical Guild did not include other health workers’ demands, that is not an
enough reason to try to isolate the medical doctors. The proper thing for the
health workers’ union leaders is to, while fighting for their own demand, show
solidarity with the medical doctors. More than this, they should have called
for joint action of the unions to win collectively.
The Medical Guild and the NMA should
also raise demands of other health workers. While the doctors were correct to
have issued educative materials on May Day, they need to take this forward by
openly calling on the generality of workers and the poor in the state to
intervene in order to save public health, which the Fashola/ACN government does
not care a hoot about. It is unfortunate that the labour unions, especially the
leaders of labour centres have kept sealed lips. Working class activists and
ordinary workers must compel them to act in the long term interests of workers
and the poor in the state, who have been at the receiving end of the Fashola
government’s irresponsibility.
Ultimately, what the Fashola government
has display is a reflection of the cynical attitude of Nigeria’s retrogressive,
pro-rich and anti-poor capitalist political class, to the welfare of working and
poor people. What the Fashola/ACN government is doing is no different from the
anti-poor policies of the PDP and other ruling parties in Nigeria. It is thus
no accident that most of the bourgeois political parties at best kept sealed
lips. The ranting of the PDP has nothing to do with the party being pro-poor,
but a mere opportunistic attempt to gain from the political backlash against
the Fashola government, as the PDP, wherever it holds rein of power implement
the same if not worse policies. The basic reason why all these parties
undertake these anti-poor policies is that they represent the class of the rich
and the exploiters. The more they spend on working and poor people, they lesser
the wealth they have to loot. Yet, the working and poor people continue to vote
for them every four years, as if there is no alternative.
This underlines the fundamental task
before the working and poor people in Nigeria – the building of an alternative
political platform, run and controlled by the working and poor people, with the
sole aim of committing public resources to public services and infrastructures.
This will mean putting the huge natural, mineral and monetary resources of the
country under the democratic control and management of the working people
organized from the factories, workplaces, grassroots and communities to the
national level. This will mean public officers will earn the salaries of
average skilled workers and their family members will utilize public facilities
like every other citizen. This is the only way to end the regime of gangsters
in power. The working people at all levels must put pressure on their union
leaders take this road.
Kola Ibrahim
(08059399178, kmarx4life@gmail.com)
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