Human right group drags Nigeria doctors to court
Posted by Ab-Davidson Nwohonja | 10 years ago | 1,194 times
A human right group, Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP) has taken Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) to the Nigerian Industrial Court in Abuja, the country’s capital. LEDAP is asking the court for the interpretation of section 6(6) of the Trade Union (Amendment) Act 2005.
In its’ summons, the advocacy group is contending that NMA, being an association of doctors providing essential services to humanity, is prohibited from carrying out strikes or lock outs by virtue of section 6(6) of the Trade Union (Amendment). According to LEDAP, the Act states that ‘No person, trade union or employer shall take part in a strike or lockout or engage in any conduct in contemplation or furtherance of a strike or lockout unless: (a) The person, trade union or employer is not engaged in the provision of essential services.’
When Factsnewsonline confronted the Director of LEDAP on the issue, he said he suit was meant to clarify some grey areas. When confronted with the fact that doctors have a right for better conditions like other Nigerian workers, he said that even though the true position was for the court to decide, that they suspected a kind of politics going on in which consultants have hijacked NMA to the detriment of real working doctors.
“Our position is that NMA should not be a body to take medical doctors, like the resident doctors, to strike. We know as a civil society group we are supposed to stand for labour, but the real labourers, in this case the working doctors, do not seem to be benefiting from it” he said
NMA has been on a nationwide strike since July this year. But in its supporting affidavit, LEDAP argues that the NMA’s industrial action has effectively paralyzed the health sector and adversely affected the entire country as the citizens of Nigeria, the majority of whom cannot afford private medical care, are not able to access essential medical services at the government hospitals.
In addition to determining whether the NMA strike is in fact illegal under section 6 of the Act, the Federal Industrial Court will also determine whether the NMA leadership should be held criminally liable for any death resulting from the said industrial action. If the Court finds that the NMA should be held liable, it is likely that the Inspector General of Police will be deemed to be under legal obligation to investigate and prosecute NMA’s leadership for any death resulting from the industrial action.
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