Rose Audu
President of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors Dr. Ishaya Godiya has tasked doctors to get involved in the country’s governance and politics.
Ishaya was speaking as the association welcomed him in the nation’s capital city ahead of the 2022 ordinary general meeting which has as its theme: the role of Doctors in governance.
According to him, the doctors for years buried themselves in the clinical practice and forgot the need to get involved in the act of governance and push for positive policies which will revamp the nation’s health sector.
While fielding questions from newsmen, Dr. Ishaya said “over the years, Nigerian doctors have restricted themselves to clinical practice and pay less attention to the governance of the country and what happens at the government at various levels.”
He maintained that that the 2022 ordinary general meeting will be dedicated to examining the role of doctors in governance.
Ishaya said the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors will welcome collaboration with relevant stakeholders to equip the doctors to be able to confront the many challenges bedeviling the Nigerian health sector.
“It will be a thing of joy for us to see our doctors get fully involved in partisan politics and be involved in policy formulation”.
“Getting involved in partisan politics will give us the experience that is needed to tackle some of the issues that have been so contentious and difficult for doctors to crack and have those issues resolved to the barest minimum,” he said.
Ishaya also expressed concern over the rising spate of brain drain currently going on in the health sector, and lamented the negative effect it has caused as the few doctors left in the country have to do more and tasked themselves to ensure that patients are cared for.
He said the doctors are paying in different ways as the work load has increased over the years as the result of doctors leaving the country.
Ishaya, therefore called on the federal government to come up with a scheme that will ensure smooth replacement of doctors that are leaving the country in search of greener pastures.
On achieving the goals of the association, he said they have enjoyed a great level of support from the Federal government and called on the state government to cooperate with them and make efforts to implement past agreements which he noted will improve the nature of service delivery in the nation’s health system.
Ishaya assured Nigerians that the association of Resident Doctors will do everything possible to ensure that there is positive improvement in the healthcare delivery in Nigeria.
He further stated that NARD will continue to encourage its members to remain in the country and contribute to revamping the country’s health sector in order to stop medical tourism.
