‘You’ll lose your jobs’ — el-Rufai warns doctors threatening to go on strike

Nasir el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna, says the doctors threatening to go on strike in the state are at risk of losing their jobs.

The doctors say the state government has not honoured an agreement on salary adjustments among other matters.

In a statement on Thursday, Muyiwa Adekeye, special adviser on media to the governor, quoted el-Rufai as saying every health worker willing to do their job will be required to sign registers at their duty posts.

The governor said the state government has a duty to ensure that residents are not deprived of health services.

“The government rejects the strike threat and will regard persons who fail to show up at their assigned places of work as having forfeited their employment,” he said.

“Every health worker that is willing to work is required to sign the register at the Ministry of Health and the health institutions to which they are deployed.

“The ministry of health has the mandate of the government to ensure that residents of Kaduna state are not deprived of public health services.

“Every effort will be made to ensure that health facilities keep functioning, staffed by willing workers who will be guaranteed free and safe access to health facilities.

“Those who are not willing to work are strongly warned against criminal actions such as attempts to impede access to workplaces, harass willing workers or to sabotage facilities and equipment.”

The governor said the state government will not be misled into granting health workers a special status among other public servants.

“The consequences of concessions made along such lines by previous governments have created a sense that some public servants are more precious than others,” he said.

The doctors are threatening to go on strike at a time the state is trying to curb the spread of COVID-19.

So far, Kaduna has recorded 170 cases of the disease.