The Nigerian Association of Medical and Dental Academics, NAMDA, has given the federal government a 21-day ultimatum to resolve lingering pay and welfare issues, warning of a nationwide indefinite strike if nothing changes.
NAMDA President, Prof. Nosa Orhue, announced this on Tuesday in Abuja after the association’s National Executive Council meeting. He said the government has three weeks to conclude negotiations, after which the NEC will meet again to decide next steps.
The core of the dispute is the stalled renegotiation of the 2009 agreement. According to Orhue, talks have been stuck since April 9, while other university unions have already gotten improved welfare packages. Medical academics say they have been left out, and that has led to unpaid earned academic allowances, professorial allowances, and an increase in brain drain.
Orhue explained that the main problem is pay disparity. University-based medical lecturers and hospital consultants do the same clinical work, including teaching, research, patient care, surgeries, and hospital administration, and hold the same qualifications and licences. Yet the lecturers earn less.
The government previously recognized this by placing them on the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure, CONMESS. Education Minister Tunji Alausa also backed salary parity and wrote to the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission. But Orhue accused some government agencies of blocking implementation.
NAMDA insists CONMESS is the only acceptable salary structure for medical and dental academics. The union also rejected plans to move members above 65 years from CONMESS to the Consolidated University Academic Salary Structure, CONUASS, calling it a demotion that causes financial loss.
Other demands include special pension benefits for retired hospital-based academics, and the removal of the National Universities Commission’s requirement that medical academics must get a PhD.
If the federal government fails to act within 21 days, Orhue said, NAMDA will proceed with industrial action.
