Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, has accused doctors in Nigeria of playing God.
The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) commenced an indefinite nationwide strike on August 2.
The industrial action, to demand better welfare, serves as a reminder to the federal and state governments of the plight of the professionals.
Among others, NARD is complaining of poor working environment in public hospitals, irregular payment of doctor’s salaries, N5,000 hazard allowances last reviewed in 1991.
But Ngige, a medical doctor who graduated from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, (UNN) in 1979, said the doctors were competing with God.
The minister poured out his heart at the 2nd Summit of Medical Elders Forum (MEF) in Abuja.
He declared that the medical association and health sector had never been in the kind of danger being witnessed.
“God does not want when he gives you powers, you use it to try to say that you are like him or you are competing with him”, NAN quoted him as saying.
“Doctors should ask themselves questions; why is it that it’s when your colleagues are in government that you go on the greatest number of strikes?”
Ngige recalled how Messrs Onyebuchi Chukwu and Isaac Adewole faced strikes during their respective ministerial tenure.
The former Anambra Governor said since the Buhari administration came on board, he had consolidated four strikes which means “something is wrong”.
“We need to ask ourselves questions and be straightforward with the answers. You say they dislike doctors, what did you do for them to dislike you?”, he quipped.
