Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) on Monday unveiled a 19-point list of demands it says are \u201cminimum expectations\u201d to avert a full-scale, indefinite nationwide strike set to begin this coming Saturday.<\/p>\n
At a media briefing in Abuja, NARD President Muhammad Suleiman said the association had demonstrated patience but concluded that \u201cthe Federal Government has failed to demonstrate the political will necessary to address the legitimate concerns of Nigerian resident doctors.\u201d<\/p>\n
Huge arrears, long-standing neglect<\/p>\n
NARD revealed that the government currently owes doctors \u2014 and other health-care professionals including administrative staff \u2014 an estimated \u20a638 billion in accumulated allowances, some dating back over a decade.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have allowances of over two years, some for 18 months, seven months, four months and even 10 years,\u201d Suleiman stated.<\/p>\n
He added that \u201cthere has been a failure to review the basic salary of doctors in this country for 16 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among the principal demands are:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Immediate payment of arrears from the 25\u201335 % review of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) and the 2024 accoutrement allowance.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Reinstatement of five resident doctors terminated without cause from the Federal Teaching Hospital, Lokoja, with back pay.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Implementation of a \u201chumane working-hours policy\u201d aligned with international best practices, to protect doctors\u2019 wellness and patient safety.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Granting Chief Executives of hospitals autonomy to employ doctor replacements when staff leave (\u201cone-for-one replacement policy\u201d), to reduce excessive workload and burnout.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Upgrading infrastructure and medical equipment across healthcare facilities, inclusion of house officers in civil service schemes, and correction of entry-level doctor placements.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The uniform implementation of CONMESS circulars across federal, state, and private institutions, cessation of casualisation of doctors, and payment of accrued promotion arrears.<\/p>\n
Strike warning and appeal to the president<\/p>\n
If the demands are not met, NARD has declared that the strike will begin 12:00 a.m. on Saturday, and will be \u201ctotal, comprehensive and indefinite\u201d in all federal and state tertiary health institutions.<\/p>\n
Suleiman appealed directly to President Bola Tinubu to intervene personally, calling him \u201cthe father of the nation\u201d and urging him to step in before the collapse of service delivery.<\/p>\n
NARD previously suspended a five-day warning strike in September following assurances from the government, and extended a 30-day ultimatum \u2014 but say no meaningful action followed.<\/p>\n
Public hospitals across Nigeria already face chronic staff shortages, deteriorating equipment, and multiple unpaid allowances, meaning a full strike by resident doctors could severely disrupt emergency and specialist services.<\/p>\n
In recent years, NARD and other health-worker unions have repeatedly embarked on industrial action over welfare, pay and working-conditions issues.<\/p>\n
Their threat comes amid warnings of a sharp drop in number of resident doctors in the health system \u2014 the association says there are only around 11,000 resident doctors nationally, versus many more a decade ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) on Monday unveiled a 19-point list of demands it says are \u201cminimum expectations\u201d to avert a full-scale, indefinite nationwide strike set to begin this coming Saturday. At a media briefing in Abuja, NARD President Muhammad Suleiman said the association had demonstrated patience but concluded that \u201cthe Federal Government has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":67157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5773,7],"tags":[2254,4510,425],"class_list":["post-95660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","category-news","tag-nard","tag-nationwide","tag-ultimatum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=95660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/67157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=95660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=95660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=95660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}