Nigeria’s health sector has been partially paralysed for over six weeks since the resident doctors embarked on strike and recently other health unions have also threatened to down tools.
A series of meetings between the federal government and the health workers to get things to run smoothly again have all been deadlocked with Nigerians bearing the brunt.
Tired of the back and forth, President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday met with the leadership of the Nigerian Medical Association at the Presidential villa in Abuja where he called on health workers to return to their duty posts.
He assured that all outstanding benefits owed medical doctors would be cleared, after verifications.
President Buhari believes embarking on an industrial action at a critical health period for the country and citizens is not a good option and cautions that while the course of Covid-19 in Nigeria is not yet entirely clear, response to it must be collective.
President of the NMA, Professor Innocent A. Ujah, said the association had been doing its best to alleviate the suffering of patients across the country, while appealing for an urgent resolution to the strike.