Sir: I am writing to you with a deep sense of urgency, profound concern, and a sincere desire to serve as a bridge toward an enduring resolution. The ongoing industrial actions particularly the recent warning strike in Ilorin over salary deductions, the non-implementation of the CONMESS framework, and unpaid allowances—threaten to completely paralyse our fragile healthcare ecosystem. When hospitals shut their doors, it is the ordinary citizens who pay the ultimate price. Lives that could easily be saved will be lost.
My connection to this cause is both personal and historic. On my mother’s side, I come from the Odutola family. Furthermore, the Emir of Ilorin holds a sacred place in our heritage as the son of my grandfather, Alhaji Jimoh Akintola Odutola. Armed with this deep ancestry, civic duty, and the trust that Nigerian doctors have placed in me over the years, I refuse to sit idly by while our healthcare delivery grid collapses.
Your grievances are entirely legitimate. It is unjust for doctors to face two per cent salary deductions for health insurance without clarity, just as it is unsustainable for our nation’s healers to be among the least paid, working under severe burnout conditions. However, we must find a solution that does not require abandoning the hospital wards.
Through the Club of Nigerians Worldwide (CNW), I am prepared to work alongside you, the Organised Private Sector, and key stakeholders to explore structured, alternative resource mobilisation models. If the state or federal funds are tied up in bureaucratic delays, let us collaboratively design private-public interventions, trust funds, or alternative financing streams to guarantee that no doctor goes underpaid or unappreciated.
I call upon the Kwara State Government, Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, and medical union leadership to return immediately to the negotiation table. Let us suspend the strikes, safeguard the lives of our people, and allow the CNW and well-meaning global Nigerian platforms to help mediate a permanent economic cure for the welfare of our doctors.
You have our trust, and you have my unwavering commitment. Let us work together to heal the system.
Augustine Togonu-Bickersteth, convener, Club of Nigerians Worldwide (CNW), wrote from London, England