The President of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors, Dr Mohammad Suleiman, has disclosed that the National Executive Council of the association has set the conditions required for suspending the ongoing indefinite strike.
According to Suleiman, NARD’s NEC has narrowed its demands to seven priority issues that must be addressed.
Speaking in an interview with Saturday PUNCH on Friday, Suleiman explained that although three conciliation meetings were held and 19 items were discussed and agreed upon, the government had failed to implement any of the resolutions except for the partial payment of the 25–35 per cent allowance.
Health services were paralysed nationwide when the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors commenced a strike on November 1, 2025, with about 11,000 resident doctors across 91 teaching hospitals walking out in protest against poor working conditions and unpaid allowances.
The disruption in health services escalated on November 15 as the Joint Health Sector Unions began its own indefinite strike, raising alarms across multiple states and intensifying concerns about patient safety and the stability of hospital operations.
Suleiman said, “We had three conciliation meetings. We agreed on all 19 items. In fact, everybody agreed that all of them needed to be solved, and there were timelines for solving them.”
According to him, the NEC has now streamlined its conditions to seven key issues that must be resolved immediately for the strike to be suspended.
These include the reinstatement of the Lokoja doctors, the release of the Professional Allowance Table, the payment of promotion arrears, the payment of salary arrears in specific hospitals, the implementation of an upgrade for doctors who passed Part I exams and entry-level requirements, the implementation of specialist allowance, and the resolution of the Membership Certificate issue.
“NEC said when the government sorts these out, we will come back again and suspend this strike. That is where we are now,” he stated.
He said specific timelines were agreed upon during negotiations, particularly the previous Friday, for key actions to be taken, including the compilation of the quantum of promotion arrears, the compilation of salary arrears across affected hospitals, the issuance of a letter to the Accountant-General regarding upgrade issues, and a response from the Head of Service on the entry point for doctors, previously downgraded from Consolidated Medical Salary Structure three to CONMESS two.
He added, “Today is Friday, one full week after the deadline, and those compilations have not even been forwarded to the Minister of Finance or the Budget Office. The Head of Service has not clarified. We still don’t have an update on the Professional Allowance Table. Even the two-week extension granted on some issues has now expired without any progress.
“The Lokoja issue we agreed on—two weeks from November 6—expired yesterday (Thursday). The report has still not been submitted. No demand has been fully met, except for the 25–35 per cent allowance, which itself remains incomplete. We all agreed that 40 per cent of our members have not received that money.
“We agreed that the remittance payment report would be released by IPPIS as of last Friday. This is Friday of the following week, and the report has still not been generated. As for the accoutrement allowance for those on the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System, we compiled the list, but it has been very problematic, with cases of double payment.”
(Punch)
