Nationwide Strike Will Continue Until Govt Acts, Residents Doctors Declare

On day four of its total and indefinite strike action, the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has restated its position as it insists that the Federal Government has yet to accept its demands.

The NARD President, Dr Emeka Oji, during a press conference in Lagos State on Saturday to review the industrial action declared earlier this week, pledged to continue the nationwide strike.

According to him, the action will go on “until reasonable progress is made by the government to address our demands as contained in the ultimatum issued to the Federal Government on the 15th of July, 2023”.

While reeling out the demands, Oji stated that it was the appeal of the National Executive Committee (NEC) that the federal and state governments urgently resolve the demands “to forestall the further escalation of the ongoing industrial disharmony in the health sector nationwide”.

NARD represents around 15,000 resident doctors out of a total of more than 40,000 doctors in the country. But the union seems to be alone in the struggle as its parent body, the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) is not on strike.

“We’re still engaging NMA and we’ll continue to engage the Nigerian Medical Association,” Oji said.

“We also call on our members in the states – that was part of our resolution – that members in the states should also engage their state officers committee of the Nigerian Medical Association because we believe that it would be difficult for NARD to do this in isolation.

“And so, we continue to engage NMA on these issues.”