National Assosication of Resident Doctors

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

Doctors, under the auspices of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), have threatened to embark on a nationwide strike if the Federal Government refuses to meet their demands. 

This was disclosed in a letter signed by NARD president, Dr Emeka Innocent Orji, on Monday. The letter, which was addressed to the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Enahire, gave the Federal Government an ultimatum of two weeks to meet the demands of the union. 

Dr Orji said the strike would commence if the issues are not resolved before the union’s National Executive Council (NEC) meeting slated for January 24th to 28th. 

The letter read in part, “Sir, our January 2023 National Executive Council meeting has been scheduled for January 24th to 28th, 2023, and we can confirm very clearly feelers that if these issues are not sorted out before that meeting, our members will likely give us a mandate to immediately kick-start processes that will lead to a nationwide industrial disharmony in the health sector.”

The Daily Reality has observed that Nigeria is witnessing its worst brain drain among doctors recently; the poor working condition is mainly responsible for the situation.

By Muhammad Sabiu

The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, has appealed to the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) members to call off their ongoing strike, advising them to embrace dialogue.

Recall that the doctors have been on strike for months in an effort to air their grievances over poor funding.

Speaking on Friday in Sokoto at the 20th Conference of the National Pediatric Surgeons of Nigeria (APSON) opening ceremony, the Sultan made the plea, urging the“doctors also to respect the court order to resume work in the interest of the nation.”

The industrial action should be the “last option in resolving industrial conflict, especially for medical workers whose responsibility has to do with saving lives of citizens,” Alhaji Abubakar said.