The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, said this while addressing newsmen before a closed door meeting with NMA and other relevant stakeholders on Saturday in Abuja.The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the meeting was summoned at the instance of President Muhammadu Buhari, aimed at resolving the doctors’ strike that started at about 2 p.m on Friday, but adjourned in the early hours of Saturday before reconvening in the afternoon.
According to him, there are reconciliations to be done here because the 2020 was done with some errors. He noted that the issue of consequential adjustment on National Minimum Wage cuts across the health and educational sectors, which were both affected by the projection of N160 billion done in 2019, but which fell short of the people that were to benefit from this.“The meeting agreed that we need to let this matter. Therefore, the Budget Office of the Federation should start from the 2021 service vote to start paying. And if we have any leftovers, we roll it into the 2022.
He said the NMA had been directed to submit a written position on the controversial withdrawing NYSC doctors and house officers from the scheme of service to point out the anomaly in the circular.He also said this would be for onward transmission to the Head of Service of the Federation, who would look at the inputs given by NMA to the circular and process it to either the Council of Establishment or handle it administratively.
”But this is not without reprimand for CMDs who have flouted government regulations by recruiting people into the service without fulfilling the requirements of circular on this,” he said.On hazard allowances for doctors in government hospitals that did not benefit from that 2020 payment, Ngige said that the Federal Ministry of Health has compiled a list and that the list would be forwarded back again to the Federal Ministry of Finance for processing.