Doctors must live by example, says NMA

The Federal Capital Territory of the Nigerian Medical Association has tasked its members to stay together to achieve a common goal.

The outgoing chairman of the association, Charles Ugwuanyi, who said this at a press briefing in Abuja on Friday, also urged the incoming executive not to condole any divisive tendency capable of causing disunity among members while highlighting the need for mutual respect among members.

He said, “As doctors, we must live by example, it doesn’t matter where you come from, your religion, or your ethnicity. All doctors must conform and align with the code of conduct and ethics as obtained in a civilized egalitarian society, make all the sacrifices, and attain mental maturity.

“In the past two years, we came to office on August 5, 2022, exactly two years now with few days, we came with high hopes to achieve our desire, and we have made some achievements based on our campaign manifestos. There are also some points of our manifestos that we are unable to achieve, but as you are aware, governance is a continuous programme. We are hoping that the people we are handing over to will continue from where we stop.

“The high point of our achievement is that we have been able to keep the association together, as you are aware, Abuja is a cosmopolitan city, and Abuja is a project Nigeria city. All part of the country is represented in our association here.

“NMA FCT must maintain that tradition of giving every part of Nigeria equal opportunities, in my administration that is about to end, we have been able to carry everybody along across religious, ethnic, political, and others. The biggest achievement is that we inherited our association intact and we are handing over it intact.”

He said his administration was able to increase public awareness to socially re-engineer the chapter, provide welfare support for members, and acquisition of land from the FCT administration.

According to him, some of the reasons the association is losing many doctors to other countries are because of poor condition of service and poor remunerations.

Ugwuanyi said that NMA-FCT had engaged the National NMA to engage the relevant agencies of the Federal Government to increase doctors’ salaries.

He noted that the campaign against violence against health workers has yielded positive results.

He, however, called on the government to improve the working environment of health workers and stop the continuous dwindling of the workforce.

He added that the NMA council has made significant progress with the Federal Ministry of Health on implementing one-for-one replacement of health workers.