This is coming a against the backdrop of the state government, which insisted that the striking doctors remained sacked for abandoning their duty posts for more than six months.
Rising from an emergency meeting held in the Osogbo, the state capital the South West caucus of the NMA, which include the state chairmen of the body in Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Ekiti and Ondo said President Buhari's intervention in the crisis had become expedient in order to avert imminent genocide that may the fallout of the prolong doctors's industrial action.
In communique signed by the chairmen of the NMA in the South West states, namely Dr. Suraj Ogunyemi (Osun), Dr. Olatunji M. B (Oyo), Dr. Betiku O.B (Ondo), Dr. Akinbote J.A (Ekiti) and Dr. Odewabi A. A. (Ogun), the caucus lamented that it was sad to note that "a government saddled with the responsibility of moving a society forward, saddles herself with the act of decimating the exact population from which she canvassed her votes for reasons best known to her".
The communique reads in part, "there is a need for intervention of parties outside the state and especially the Federal Government to halt the genocide of the people of Osun State by Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and his Cohorts.
The news of the “tug of war” between the Doctors in Osun and the government of Osun State amplified by Mr. Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, is no news to the populace".
"It is a fact, albeit unknown to most Nigerians that the issues of backlog/non-payment of salaries in Osun State dates back to periods of excesses in national revenue (buoyancy) as far back as 2011, contrary to what the government of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola wants people to believe. All along, the NMA had watched with keen interest while seeking a peaceful solution to the situation without any improvement.
"In June 2014, just prior to Mr. Governor's re-election, a governor who had claimed unavailability of funds (in period of excess windfall) and was owing about 4 months salaries suddenly paid three months salaries, in quick succession, within a period of about 10 days possibly to cajole the teaming masses and make re-election more likely".
"All this time the government claimed that their inability to pay salaries was due to injustice meted out to it by the Federal Government at that time especially as an opposition state. The government maintained that its allocation was being unduly reduced to stifle it. The question which remained unanswered by the government was the real reason for any reduction in allocation, if indeed it was true. The government of the state moved a step further by increasing arbitrarily the tax of our members".
"The Federal Government in 2014 approved a corrected salary scale for doctors, which was subsequently implemented in hospitals across the country. Osun State government which refused to implement the new salary scale began to implement its own version of the Federal Government Tax System, PITAS (Personal Income Tax System). This meant that doctors in Osun were paying twice the tax of doctors in other Institutions while earning a quarter of their salaries as a result of the stipend the government started dishing out to doctors".
"Much to the “apparent” relief of the people of Osun State and thanks to the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, a bailout plan was implemented and funds were released for the purpose of offsetting outstanding salaries which in Osun State at the time stood at seven months. To the dismay of the people of the State, the government withheld the fund and started its world acclaimed negotiations with Nigerian Labour Congress (Osun State chapter) in order to avoid full payment of outstanding salaries".
"Let it be known that doctors in Osun were never a part of the negotiation which was loudly communicated to the government while stating that Labour Unions have never and will never negotiate for doctors"
"In truth, the hospitals around the state have been non-functional, with patients resorting to private hospitals. The resulting effects of this include an increase in quackery across the state, increased maternal mortality and other forms of mortalities as a result of the intentional neglect of the state's secondary and tertiary health institutions by the Government of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola".
"In addition, there has been a mass exodus of skilled manpower including very senior doctors, as they cannot fold their arms and have their children sent out of school, their families sent packing for outstanding rents, their electricity disconnected, aged parents going hungry, not to talk of their inability to pay examination fees".
"The above necessitated increased efforts at dialogue with the government, all to no avail and this finally led to the industrial action which commenced on September 28, 2015. With the commencement of the strike action, continued effort was made to speak with the government and other stakeholders towards finding a lasting solution. To our dismay the government came out with its first sack threat on December 18, 2015 which was to take effect on December 25, 2015. What a Christmas gift from an insensitive government".
"Thereafter, a Board of Management was inaugurated which engaged our members in dialogues. In the course of the series of dialogue, the association shifted ground severally following which there were propositions by the Board for consideration which the association magnanimously accepted in order to bring an end to lingering crises.
As it is the culture of this government, the governor unilaterally ignored the resolution between the board and the NMA and instead, on January 7, 2016, at the 75th birthday of the revered former NLC boss Comrade Hassan Sunmonu, the governor issued the second sack threat publicly to take effect on Monday, January 11, 2016".
In furtherance, Osun State government advertised for new Doctors in a bid to replace the striking doctors with the aim of paying them the “NEGOTIATED NLC/GOVERNMENT AGREED SALARY PACKAGE”.
"In all these, the government continued its propaganda of lies, taking random pictures of other hospital staff without their consent, in order to prove the false claims that the hospital was fully functioning".
Credit: Tribune
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