The Governorship Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
for Lagos State, Mr. Jimi Agbaje, has bemoaned the on-going strike by
Medical Doctors in the employment of the state government.
Calling for a truce between striking doctors under the aegis of the Medical Guild and the state government, Agbaje restated the call for Governor Babatunde Fashola to pay the medical practitioners three months withheld salaries.
He reasoned that it was most uncharitable for government to look the other way while lives were being lost due to series of avoidable strikes by doctors in the last one year.
According to him, no matter government’s position regarding the strike, it ought to consider the interest of Lagosians, on behalf of whom it holds public office in trust.
Agbaje said: “I feel compelled once again to express my dissatisfaction with the latest strike by doctors in the employ of the state government, which has become like a recurring decimal in Lagos in the last one year. No doubt, this is one more sign of the failure of leadership, which could have averted the strike and attendant suffering inflicted on the masses of our people who daily throng hospitals for treatment. The fact that the three days’ warning strike snowballed into this full-blown strike is another clear demonstration of APC’s apathy and impunity.”
However, he asked Governor Fashola to remember that he swore to uphold the interests of the people of Lagos State, today bearing the brunt of the strike.
The PDP candidate added: “That the Governor has carried on as if the issue is not important smacks of his penchant for impunity, a characteristic that has become a major drawback to his administration.”
According to a statement by Agbaje’s Directorate of Media and Publicity, the PDP want Fashola to immediately open lines of direct discussion with the doctors, with a view to paying the pending salary arrears.
Agbaje added that for a state where the citizenry pay for medical services despite failed promises, of free health, the onus was on the government to ensure a sound, functional health system.
“APC leaders have over time told us at every opportunity that they are Awoists, but I doubt whether an Awolowo would look the other way while the People die due to unnecessary grandstanding.
“Meanwhile, the same Fashola is going round the state on APC campaigns to ask the same people he is maltreating to vote for his party. Is His Excellency unaware that only a healthy people that can vote on election day.”
According to Agbaje, a PDP government would from May 29 make the people the heart of its programmes and policies.
“I have said severally that our style as a government will be different from that of this government because the people irrespective of who they are will be our primary focus. We are not going to re-invent the wheel. What we shall do in the area of health for instance is a free-health insurance scheme, which will be beneficial to all stakeholders. Unlike what obtains now, Lagoscians will be free to choose their own doctors, while government will pay. This is a system that is working in other countries. It will work in Lagos because we have the capacity and political will to make it succeed,” he stressed.
DIRECTORATE OF MEDIA AND PUBLICITY FOR MR. JIMI AGBAJE, THE PDP GOVERNORSHIP CANDIDATE FOR LAGOS STATE
Calling for a truce between striking doctors under the aegis of the Medical Guild and the state government, Agbaje restated the call for Governor Babatunde Fashola to pay the medical practitioners three months withheld salaries.
He reasoned that it was most uncharitable for government to look the other way while lives were being lost due to series of avoidable strikes by doctors in the last one year.
According to him, no matter government’s position regarding the strike, it ought to consider the interest of Lagosians, on behalf of whom it holds public office in trust.
Agbaje said: “I feel compelled once again to express my dissatisfaction with the latest strike by doctors in the employ of the state government, which has become like a recurring decimal in Lagos in the last one year. No doubt, this is one more sign of the failure of leadership, which could have averted the strike and attendant suffering inflicted on the masses of our people who daily throng hospitals for treatment. The fact that the three days’ warning strike snowballed into this full-blown strike is another clear demonstration of APC’s apathy and impunity.”
However, he asked Governor Fashola to remember that he swore to uphold the interests of the people of Lagos State, today bearing the brunt of the strike.
The PDP candidate added: “That the Governor has carried on as if the issue is not important smacks of his penchant for impunity, a characteristic that has become a major drawback to his administration.”
According to a statement by Agbaje’s Directorate of Media and Publicity, the PDP want Fashola to immediately open lines of direct discussion with the doctors, with a view to paying the pending salary arrears.
Agbaje added that for a state where the citizenry pay for medical services despite failed promises, of free health, the onus was on the government to ensure a sound, functional health system.
“APC leaders have over time told us at every opportunity that they are Awoists, but I doubt whether an Awolowo would look the other way while the People die due to unnecessary grandstanding.
“Meanwhile, the same Fashola is going round the state on APC campaigns to ask the same people he is maltreating to vote for his party. Is His Excellency unaware that only a healthy people that can vote on election day.”
According to Agbaje, a PDP government would from May 29 make the people the heart of its programmes and policies.
“I have said severally that our style as a government will be different from that of this government because the people irrespective of who they are will be our primary focus. We are not going to re-invent the wheel. What we shall do in the area of health for instance is a free-health insurance scheme, which will be beneficial to all stakeholders. Unlike what obtains now, Lagoscians will be free to choose their own doctors, while government will pay. This is a system that is working in other countries. It will work in Lagos because we have the capacity and political will to make it succeed,” he stressed.
DIRECTORATE OF MEDIA AND PUBLICITY FOR MR. JIMI AGBAJE, THE PDP GOVERNORSHIP CANDIDATE FOR LAGOS STATE
