2023: Engage key presidential candidates on health sector blueprints – Bayelsa dep gov

Ahead of the forthcoming 2023 general elections in the country, the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) and its affiliate unions have been charged to engage the presidential candidates of the major political parties on their respective blueprints and agenda for the health sector.

Bayelsa State Deputy governor, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo gave the charge over the weekend while declaring open the South South Zonal Executive Council meeting of the NMA in Yenagoa, the state capital.

According to him, such a meeting is important and relevant as it will afford stakeholders in the health sector an opportunity to hold the new government that will emerge from the 2023 elections accountable to its promises concerning the health sector.

Ewhrudjakpo in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media, Mr Doubara Atasi, urged the NMA to provide the necessary leadership to make the engagement with the presidential hopefuls a reality.

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He stated that quite a good number of the presidential candidates for next year’s election had consulted with the business community, media stakeholders, farmers and other groups, but wondered why they were yet to meet with critical stakeholders in the health sector.

On the twin issues of brain drain and lack of manpower in the health sector, the deputy governor said the present administration in Bayelsa State was doing its best to retain its personnel.

He reminded the members of the NMA that migrating from Nigeria in search of greener pastures elsewhere was not the solution to the challenges bedevilling the health sector, adding that what was required was for Nigerians to make all necessary sacrifices to fix their country by themselves.

The National President of the NMA, Dr Uche Rowland Ojinmah, and the South South Zonal Chairperson, Dr Imosili Udoka, commended the Bayelsa State government for all the good things it had been doing in the health sector, appealing for the domestication of the recent federal circular on medical doctors’ allowance.