Lagos doctors suspend strike - NEXT

Lagos State medical doctors, on Sunday suspended, their 14-week-old strike and gave the state government a 72-hour ultimatum to pay their withheld salaries.

The decision was taken at an emergency congress of the Medical Guild, an umbrella association for medical doctors on the payroll of the Lagos State government, presided by the chairman, Aboyade Williams. Mr Williams, while briefing journalists about the congress's decision, said that the association may have to call another congress on Friday, November 26, or in February 2011, depending on whether the government reciprocates their "goodwill." "If within 72 hours, the withheld salaries are not paid, the congress may have to reconvene on Friday," he said.

Mutually agreeable wage review

Mr Williams told journalists that there is a "very good understanding" between the state government and the medical association, and the strike was suspended on the basis of that understanding, hoping that by January 2011, the government will make good its promise to implement a new salary package. He read out a letter, addressed to the association on November 19, by the state's Head of Service, Adesegun Ogunlewe, which contained several promises for all the demands of the association.

The letter stated, in part, that: "With effect from January 2011, a mutually agreeable wage review, which will not put Lagos doctors on a disadvantage compared to their colleagues in other states, will be implemented." Other promises included the "positive review" of the case of Ibrahim Olaifa, the association's past chairman, who was sacked for addressing journalists as against government's order, which forbid any civil servant from speaking to journalists; a "positive review" of withheld September and October salaries and other arrears; the remittance of the association's dues; and the promise that "no officer will be victimised on account of participation or role played during the strike." Whatever the "mutually agreeable wage review" means in terms of figure, though not disclosed, was acceptable to the doctors. It will not be known until January's salary is paid whether the review will be acceptable to the doctors; hence the promise by Mr Williams that the congress may be convened sometime in February to review government's implementation of its promises.

Banking on government's goodwill

The strike succeeded in dragging the government to the negotiation table, though it still did not produce the legal commitment the doctors demanded. The government had earlier promised to implement the new pay package in January 2011, thorough a letter written by Mr Ogunlewe to the association, but the doctors demanded for a circular, choosing not to "trust" the promise on the basis of several previous failed promises. According to one of the doctors, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the doctors shifted stance because the strike has already gone farther than they expected. "You know when you struggle against an entity with limitless resources, you must have limitless resources also and we don't have that limitless resource," he said.