The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors has declared an indefinite strike effective on Wednesday, July 26, 2023 due to failure of the Government to meet its demands.
The NARD President, Dr Emeka Orji, who disclosed this on Tuesday, said the decision was reached by members during the NERD’s July National Executive Council meeting which was held in Lagos on Friday.
Orji said the strike was as a result of the failure of the Government to meet the association’s demands which were enumerated as follows:
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- the implementation of the one-for-one replacement policy for healthcare workers
- the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria to discontinue the downgrading of the membership certificate issued by the West African Postgraduate Medical and Surgical Colleges
- the immediate payment of all salary arrears
- the implementation of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure
- Implementation of new hazard allowance
- Implementation of the Medical Residency Training Fund and
- the domestication of the Medical Residency Training Act, among others.
According to Orji, the organization has been on a back-and-forth with the government over the same issue since the beginning of the year, hence, the unanimous decision of the strike, which he said was the last resort of the organization.
His words: “Our members are saying that we have been on this since January on the same issues, and they are not going to continue to wait.
“The very important part of our demands is one-for-one replacement, and doctors are still leaving and the ones remaining are being overworked.
“Last week, a doctor died in Bayelsa State. Doctors are dying from being overworked, and we have been on this for a very long time.
“When we met on Friday, everybody was calling for a strike, and I just had to plead with them because the Secretary to the Government, George Akume, intervened, but up till today, we cannot reach them again, and nobody wants to hear about any intervention by the government again.”
The Association had earlier embarked on a warning strike which was suspended on May 21 after a meeting with the government. The association again met with the government on June 2 to review the progress made with the agreement to decide on what would be their next move.
Recall also that, in a meeting with the leadership of NERD on Monday, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Tajudeen Abbass requested a timeframe of two weeks for him to meet with President Bola Tinubu and discuss the Association’s Demand.