FG accuses media of vocabulary error, says Resident Doctors were suspended not sacked

The Federal Government has denied media reports that it sacked striking members of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA).

Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, stated this while briefing State House correspondents in Abuja, on Wednesday, noting that the change in vocabulary from suspension to sack was capable of sending out a wrong message.


Chukwu said the programme was suspended because the allotted time within which the resident doctors were supposed to acquire the needed skills was being wasted, hence government’s decision to re-appraise it.

He, however, warned that the suspension of the doctors may last for months, until a committee to be set up by government submits its report on what next to be done.

The federal government had in a memo dated August 13, sacked about 16,000 Resident Doctors, after having “considered recent developments in the heath sector.”