Fresh strike looms as Nigerian doctors issue two weeks ultimatum

The Nigerian government has been given a two-week deadline to start implementing all outstanding agreements, failing which there will be industrial unrest. This deadline was issued by the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD).

The news was announced in a statement following the Wednesday Extraordinary National Executive Council Meeting.

According to a communique signed by NARD President Emeka Orji, the two-week ultimatum, which expires on July 19, will provide the government with enough time to begin implementing the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) resolutions previously agreed upon.

It declared that if the government didn’t comply with its demands by then, its members might go on a nationwide strike.

The communique reads in part: ”NEC observed with disappointment that it is now seven weeks since the end of the five-day warning strike action embarked upon by the association to press home her demands and that the resolutions of the conciliatory meeting chaired by the then Honourable Minister of Labour and Employment were yet to be implemented, seven weeks after, despite the set timelines for their implementation.”

“For emphasis, at the expiration of this further extended ultimatum, if all these demands are not met, we cannot guarantee industrial harmony in the health sector nationwide.”

Remember that the doctors went on a five-day warning strike on May 17, 2023, after the Nigerian government refused to comply with their demands.

The association had given the government until January to address issues that affected its members, including the prompt implementation and payment of the new hazard allowance as well as arrears.

But the doctors started the strike because it was said that the government had not complied with their demands.

Following the union’s signing of an MoU with the federal government, the strike was called off.

The doctors, among other grievances, are demanding the immediate payment of the 2023 Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF), tangible steps on the “upward review” of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS), and payment of all salary arrears owed its members since 2015.

The union also demands the immediate, wide hiring of clinical staff in hospitals and the abolition of administrative restrictions on replacing departing physicians and nurses as soon as possible.

Additionally, they demand that all state governments and private tertiary medical institutions that conduct residency training conduct an immediate review of the hazard allowance.