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FG Gives Striking Doctors Condition For Withdrawing Suit

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The federal government has said it is ready to withdraw the case it instituted against striking resident doctors if they return to their duty posts.
Minister of labour and employment, Dr Chris Ngige, disclosed this to State House correspondents after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, yesteday
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He insisted that the ‘no work, no pay’ policy would be observed because it is a global best practice which is also captured in Section 43 of the Trade Dispute Act under the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

He said: “In the main, I discussed the state of the healthcare system and industrial disputes with Mr. President. As you well know, the resident doctors are still on strike. Their strike has now entered the 33rd day today. Meanwhile, the government is doing everything possible to make sure they get back to work.

“Out of their 12-point issues raised in their demands, we have done all. We have come to agreement on all, including those that even affect the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria and medical doctors who are in academics and teaching hospitals, so, we have handled it all.

“The only point of disagreement now is that they said that the agreements and the memorandum of action government should insert include that Section 43 of the Trade Dispute Act will not apply to them.

“That section says that when a worker withdraws his services from his employer, the employer is at liberty to withhold payment of emoluments to him and the ILO principles at work and strike said you can use that money to pay other people you have engaged in that particular period of strike.

“So, you have a right to strike, but your employer has also the right to withhold your emolument. More importantly, in other climes, before unions go on strike, by that principle, they discuss with their workers and bring out what they call strike funds and it’s from the strike funds that the union will use to pay the workers who have gone on strike. They will also agree on the number of days the strike will last.

“That’s why overseas and in other climes, you don’t see strikes getting more than three days or four days or five days highest. And more importantly again, people on essential services, medical services, in particular, where you can lose life, they don’t go on strike any anyhow. They only do picketing and things like that, because people’s lives are involved.”

Ngige said the government had before now applied the ‘no work, no pay’ rule on some unions that embarked on strike.
“So, this is where we are with them and we are saying that even if anybody cares to put it in any agreement, that clause will be void ab initio because it’s against the law of the land and we will not, as a government, succumb to undue arm twisting and then go and sign that. Other workers have lost their pay during strikes; the Joint Health Systems Union (JOHESU), they lost their pay in 2018 when they went on four months strike.They lost about two or three months’ pay when the no-work, no-pay law was invoked.

“The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), no-work, no-pay applied to them. Nobody paid them anything for six months and it was during COVID-19. So, we can handle things administratively, but nobody should arm-twist us.”

Speaking of the court case the federal government instituted against the striking resident doctors, the Labour minister said he told the president that “we’ve agreed that they should come back to work, and if they come back to work, we can take other things from there; we’ll drop the case in court and then they will come back and get things done.”

Ngige said further that “the Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, in conjunction with the Office of the Head of Service, had a meeting and they are jointly going to do a circular that will be issued for Salaries, Incomes and Wages to reiterate that the House Officers and Youth Corps doctors are still on CONMES scale one and two respectively. So, I think we are doing the implementation.

“Also, from the monitoring meeting we did this morning, the Ministry of Health has gotten the list of doctors who supposedly are to benefit from the Medica Residency Training Fund. Total submission of about 8,000 names were obtained and the Ministry of Health is scrutinising them. We have done the first round of scrutiny and they will now compare what they have with the Post-Graduate Medical College and the chief medical directors who submitted the names.”
He noted that “the Association of Resident Doctors in each of the tertiary centres worked with the CMDs to produce those names, but now that the names are being verified, we discovered that about 2000 names shouldn’t be there because they don’t have what is called Postgraduate Reference Numbers of National Postgraduate Medical College and (or) that of the West African Postgraduate Medical College.

“So, this is it and that is the only thing holding back the Residency Fund payment.”
Ngige added that the verification was being carried to avoid an ugly past experience.

“In 2020, the submitted names didn’t come through the appropriate source, which is the Postgraduate Medical College, and payment was affected and it was discovered that about 588 persons who were not resident doctors benefited from such money and they are now finding it difficult to make the full refund, but they have to refund that money. Some are refunding, but there is no full consideration of the account. That account has to be reconciled to enable the accountants to pay the next round of funding for 2021.

“That’s what I briefed Mr. President on and we also discussed some policies, which is not for public consumption now. We take it in its stride as the days come by, but we did discuss politics, the state of our party nationally,” he added.

Culled from the Leadership News Nigeria

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NLC protests: Why Nigeria’s economy is in such a mess

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Nigeria is currently experiencing its worst economic crisis in a generation, leading to widespread hardship and anger.

The trade union umbrella group, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), held protests in the main cities on Tuesday, calling for more action from the government.

A litre of petrol costs more than three times what it did nine months ago, while the price of the staple food, rice, has more than doubled in the past year.

These two figures highlight the difficulties that many Nigerians are facing as wages have not kept up with the rising cost of living.

Like many nations, Nigeria has experienced economic shocks from beyond its shores in recent years, but there are also issues specific to the country, partly driven by the reforms introduced by President Bola Tinubu when he took office last May.

How bad is the economy?

Overall, annual inflation, which is the average rate at which prices go up, is now close to 30% – the highest figure in nearly three decades. The cost of food has risen even more – by 35%.

However, the monthly minimum wage, set by the government and which all employers are supposed to observe, has not changed since 2019, when it was put at 30,000 naira – this is worth just $19 (£15) at current exchange rates.

Many are going hungry, rationing what food they have or looking for cheaper alternatives.

In the north, some people are now eating the rice that is normally discarded as part of the milling process. The waste product usually goes into fish food.

Widely shared social media videos indicate how some are reducing portion sizes.

One clip shows a woman cutting a fish into nine pieces rather than the average four to five. She is heard saying her goal is to ensure her family can at least eat some fish twice a week.

What is causing Nigeria’s economic crisis?

Inflation has soared in many countries, as fuel and other costs spiked as a result of the war in Ukraine.

But President Tinubu’s efforts to remodel the economy have also added to the burden.

On the day he was sworn in nine months ago, the new president announced that the long-standing fuel subsidy would be ending.

This had kept petrol prices low for citizens of this oil-producing nation, but it was also a huge drain on public finances. In the first half of 2023, it accounted for 15% of the budget – more than the government spent on health or education. Mr Tinubu argued that this could be better used elsewhere.

However, the subsequent huge jump in the price of petrol has caused other prices to rise as companies pass on transportation and energy costs to the consumer.

One other factor that is pushing up inflation is an issue that Mr Tinubu inherited from his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, according to financial analyst Tilewa Adebajo.

He told the BBC’s Newsday programme that the previous government had asked the country’s central bank for short-term loans to cover spending amounting to $19bn.

The bank printed the money, which helped fuel inflation, Mr Adebajo said.

Chart showing the changing food prices

What has happened to the naira?

Mr Tinubu also ended the policy of pegging the price of the currency, the naira, to the US dollar rather than leaving it up to the market to determine on the basis of supply and demand. The central bank was spending a lot of money maintaining the level.

But scrapping the peg has led the naira’s value to plunge by more than two-thirds, briefly hitting an all-time low last week.

Last May, 10,000 naira would buy $22, now it will only fetch around $6.40.

As the naira is worth less, the price of all imported products has gone up.

When will things get better?

While the president is unlikely to reverse his decisions on the fuel subsidy and the naira, which he argues will pay off in the long run by making Nigeria’s economy stronger, the government has introduced some measures to ease the suffering.

Nigeria’s Vice-President Kashim Shettima announced the establishment of a board charged with controlling and regulating food prices. The government also ordered the national grain reserve to distribute 42,000 tonnes of grains, including maize and millet.

This is not the first time the government has said it is distributing aid to poor and vulnerable Nigerians, but labour unions have often criticised the government’s method of food distribution, saying much of it does not reach poor families.

The government has also said it is working with rice producers to get more of it into markets and customs officials have been instructed to cheaply sell off bags of the grain that they have seized. In a sign of how bad things are, on Friday this led to a crush in the biggest city, Lagos, which killed seven people, local media report. These hand-outs have now been halted.

The rice was seized under the previous government, which banned imports of rice to encourage local farmers to grow more. That ban was lifted last year in at attempt to bring down the cost but because of the fall in the value of the naira, that has not worked.

Around 15 million poorer households are also receiving a cash transfer of 25,000 naira ($16; £13) a month, but these days that doesn’t go very far.

Culled from the BBC

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Africa

Nangolo Mbumba Sworn In as Namibia’s Interim President

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Nangolo Mbumba has been sworn in as the interim president of the southern African country of Namibia.

He was installed Sunday, following the death of President Hage Geingob earlier in the day at a hospital in Windhoek.

Geingob announced in January that he had cancer.

Mbumba said Sunday that he does not plan to run for president in elections later this year.

That means newly-installed Vice President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah could seek the presidential office. If she won, she would be first female president in southern Africa.

However, she may face some challengers from within SWAPO, her political party.

The South West Africa People’s Organization or SWAPO has been in power in Namibia since it gained independence in 1990.

President Geingob recently upbraided Germany for supporting Israel against genocide charges at the International Court of Justice.

Geingob said Germany committed genocide in Namibia in the 1800s, killing tens of thousands of Africans.

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Horrible images of massive blast in Nigeria caused by explosives

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ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Three people died and 77 others were injured overnight when an explosives rocked more than 20 buildings in one of Nigeria’s largest cities, authorities said Wednesday, as rescue workers dug through the rubble in search of those feared trapped.

Residents in the southwestern state of Oyo’s densely populated Ibadan city heard a loud blast at about 7:45 p.m. Tuesday, causing panic as many fled their homes. By Wednesday morning, security forces cordoned off the area while medical personnel and ambulances were on standby as rescue efforts intensified.

Preliminary investigations showed the blast was caused by explosives stored for use in illegal mining operations, Oyo Gov. Seyi Makinde told reporters after visiting the site in the Bodija area of Ibadan.

3 killed and 77 injured in massive blast caused by explosives in southern  Nigerian city - Bharat Express

 

Nigeria explosion leaves 3 dead, 77 injured as rescue workers frantically  dig through rubble to search for survivors

 

3 killed, 77 injured in massive blast caused by explosives in southern  Nigerian city - ABC News

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