Resident doctors shelf planned strike

After a three-hour meeting at the Presidential Villa, the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) on Tuesday agreed to shelve its planned strike.

The meeting, convened at the instance of the Chief of Staff to the President, Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila, resolved key welfare, salary and promotion issues that had prompted the planned strike.

Present at the meeting were the Minister of Labour and Employment, Muhammad Maigari Dingyadi; the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate; the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Taiwo Oyedele; the Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation; the Accountant-General of the Federation; and officials responsible for cash management and the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

NARD President, Dr. Muhammad Suleiman, led the association’s delegation to the meeting.

Checks revealed that NARD had last month threatened to embark on an indefinite strike over outstanding salary arrears, welfare concerns and other longstanding issues affecting its members.

Among its demands, the association called for the immediate payment of outstanding arrears arising from the 25 and 35 per cent Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) review, 19 months of unpaid professional allowance arrears, as well as outstanding salary and promotion arrears owed to doctors in several federal health institutions.

At the end of the meeting on Tuesday, Dr. Suleiman told journalists that the discussions had substantially addressed NARD’s demands. He noted that both parties had a robust and fruitful engagement and agreed on definite timelines for addressing outstanding salary payments, promotions and allowances.

He said: “Today, I can tell you, our matters are solved.”

“This is not the first time the Chief of Staff has intervened in matters relating to resident doctors in this country. About six or seven years ago, when he became Speaker, it was the first opportunity he had to intervene, and he has always intervened. Whenever he came into our issues, our matters were solved.”

According to Dr. Suleiman, “Timelines have been agreed upon by various agencies of government on salary and promotion issues. We are talking about the meal issue at LUTH, and we are talking about a week for implementation. We have agreed on a figure. We have agreed on numbers.”

“We also talked about house officers, so that they don’t have to wait a whole month before they get the previous month’s salaries. In fact, he has given a standing order that before the 10th of every month, salaries of house officers must be paid.”

He revealed that the Presidency mandated the Ministries of Labour and Employment and Health to fast-track negotiations on the Collective Bargaining Agreement with NARD in order to accommodate the financial commitments in the 2027 budget.

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On the safety of medical personnel, the NARD President said the growing trend of attacks on health workers also formed part of the discussions. He expressed satisfaction that the Presidency had assured the association that it would initiate legislation to curb attacks on health workers.

“The Chief of Staff has taken it upon himself to introduce legislation so that the National Assembly can come in with something that will make assault on health workers an aggravated offence. We are very glad about that. We think it will send the right signal that health workers should not be assaulted.”

Dr. Suleiman, however, clarified that the National Executive Council (NEC) of NARD would take the final decision on the formal suspension of the strike notice.

“I can’t stand here and tell you I have called off the strike. What I’ll do is report back to the National Executive Council. I have the utmost confidence that what he (Gbajabiamila) has done today has moved the needle to a very large extent and has helped to solve our issues, and we’ll wait for more.

“I have National Executive Council members. I will have a conversation with them. I have to report all of this back. We will sit down and take a decision.

“The point is, the person who called us for this conversation has never failed resident doctors. That is what I am emphasising.”