The Nigerian Association of Medical and Dental Academics (NAMDA) has given the federal government 21 days to address outstanding salary and welfare issues or face a nationwide indefinite strike.

The association’s President, Nosa Orhue, announced the ultimatum on Tuesday in Abuja after a meeting of the union’s National Executive Council (NEC).

Mr Orhue said the government must conclude negotiations within the next 21 days, warning that the union would reconvene after the deadline to decide its next course of action if there was no meaningful progress.

According to him, the association had engaged government through dialogue for more than 24 months without meaningful progress.

Mr Orhue said the association was dissatisfied that negotiations on the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement had remained stalled since 9 April, in spite of repeated engagements.

He alleged that while improved welfare packages had been implemented for other university unions, NAMDA members remained excluded, resulting in non-payment of earned academic and professorial allowances and worsening brain drain among medical academics.

The NAMDA president attributed the dispute largely to salary disparities between university-based medical lecturers and hospital consultants performing identical professional duties.

He explained that medical academics combine teaching, research and clinical responsibilities, including patient care, surgeries and hospital administration.

According to him, they earn less than their counterparts in the hospital system despite maintaining the same professional qualifications and practising licences.

Mr Orhue said the federal government had previously recognised the unique status of medical academics through their placement on the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS). He added that the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, had supported salary parity and communicated the position to the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission.

He, however, alleged that some government agencies were frustrating implementation of the agreement.

Mr Orhue reaffirmed that CONMESS remained the only acceptable salary framework for medical and dental academics.

He warned that any attempt to replace it with another structure could trigger industrial action.

He also rejected what he described as the forced migration of members above 65 years from CONMESS to the Consolidated University Academic Salary Structure (CONUASS).

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According to him, the move amounts to a demotion and results in financial losses for affected academics.

He said the association was also demanding implementation of special pension benefits for retired hospital-based academics and opposed the National Universities Commission’s requirement for medical academics to obtain PhD qualifications.

In spite of the dispute, Mr Orhue commended President Bola Tinubu’s administration for efforts to improve university education and hailed the Minister of Education for supporting salary parity for medical academics.

He also lauded the federal government’s preparedness for a possible Ebola outbreak and pledged the association’s support toward strengthening the country’s public health response.

(NAN)