NIGERIA: Resident Doctors Suspend Planned Strike After Presidency Intervention

By Onoja Baba

The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) is set to suspend its planned nationwide indefinite strike following a high-level meeting with the Presidency that resolved key issues relating to salaries, allowances, promotions and welfare.

The breakthrough came after a three-hour meeting on Tuesday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, convened by the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, and attended by the Ministers of Labour, Health and Finance, the Director-General of the Budget Office, the Accountant-General of the Federation, and officials overseeing cash management and the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

Speaking to journalists after the meeting, NARD President, Dr Muhammad Suleiman, said the Federal Government had agreed to clear timelines for addressing virtually all outstanding issues that prompted the association to threaten industrial action.

“Today, I can tell you, our matters are solved,” Suleiman said, expressing confidence that the agreements reached would avert the planned strike.

However, he explained that the association’s National Executive Council (NEC) would take the final decision on formally suspending the strike after reviewing the outcome of the meeting.

“I can’t stand here and tell you I have called off a strike. I have National Executive Council members. I have to report all of this back. We sit down and take a decision,” he said.

According to Suleiman, the meeting produced agreements on salary adjustments, promotions and welfare issues, including the long-standing meal allowance dispute involving doctors at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), with implementation expected within one week.

He also disclosed that the Presidency had issued a standing directive to ensure that house officers receive their salaries promptly.

“Before the 10th of every month, salaries of house officers must be paid,” he said.

On the ongoing Collective Bargaining Agreement between NARD and the Federal Government, Suleiman said the Ministries of Labour and Health had been directed to fast-track negotiations so that any agreed terms could be accommodated in the 2027 budget.

The NARD president also raised concerns over increasing attacks on healthcare workers, revealing that 31 doctors and more than 20 other health workers had been assaulted in the last 10 months.

He said the Federal Ministry of Health had agreed to issue directives to hospitals to strengthen security while embarking on public awareness campaigns against violence targeting health workers.

In addition, Suleiman disclosed that the Chief of Staff had pledged to champion legislation that would make assaults on healthcare workers an aggravated offence.

The meeting also addressed the issue of unpaid hazard and specialist allowance arrears. Suleiman explained that although the Tinubu administration corrected the payment structure earlier this year, a backlog covering about 19 months remains outstanding.

He noted that government agencies had agreed to determine a timeline for settling the outstanding payments.

A source familiar with the meeting said NARD leaders had privately assured the Presidency that the proposed strike would be called off following the agreements reached.

The intervention comes days after the association announced plans to embark on an indefinite nationwide strike from August 10 over unpaid salary arrears, welfare concerns and the government’s failure to implement previous agreements.

NARD had warned that unless its demands were met before the deadline, resident doctors across Nigeria’s teaching and specialist hospitals would withdraw their services beginning at 8 a.m. on August 10.