Nigerian doctors working in government hospitals on Monday began a two-day warning strike to press for the payment of salary arrears, officials said in a statement in Lagos.
In a statement signed by Jerry Oguzie, head of the National Association of Resident Doctors, medical practitioners were urged ”to stay at home on Monday 8th and Tuesday 9th November 2004”.
It said the warning strike is aimed at reminding the federal government of the association’s pay demands, adding that doctors have since November 2003 been receiving only partial payment.
The doctors said the strike also served 21 days’ notice on the government to settle outstanding arrears, failing which an open-ended strike will be launched.
Ayo Olagunju, spokesperson for the Lagos University Teaching hospital — the biggest specialist hospital in Nigeria’s economic capital, Lagos — confirmed the strike is on.
”The strike action is on in the hospital. But as usual skeleton services are going on by the hospital’s other medical personnel,” he said.
”We hope that the matter will be resolved quickly so as not to endanger the lives of patients,” he added.
The doctors’ strike is not linked to a planned nationwide stoppage called by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and a coalition of civil rights groups in protest against rising fuel prices in the country.
Trade unionists under the umbrella of the NLC on Monday staged a protest in the capital city, Abuja, as a follow-up to last Wednesday’s demonstration in Lagos.
The series of rallies are aimed at drumming up support for the November 16 nationwide general strike to protest rising fuel prices in the oil-rich West African country, where cheap fuel is regarded as a birthright by many.
The police have warned against such rallies, saying they are illegal. — Sapa-AFP