Nigeria Doctors plans to embark on nationwide protests over unable to meet there demands

If the Federal Government does not comply with its requests, the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has stated it will start holding peaceful protests on Wednesday, August 9, 2023.

The Federal Ministry of Health, the Office of the Federation’s Chief Civil Service, and the nation’s federal and state tertiary health institutes will all be picketed, according to NARD.

The group informed the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Health, Olufunso Adebiyi, of this on Saturday, August 5, 2023, in a circular captioned “Notice of nationwide mass protests and picketing by NARD.”

Dr. Emeka Orji, the association’s president, and Dr. Kelechi Chikezie, its secretary general, both signed the circular.

On July 26, 2023, NARD began an indefinite strike after giving the government a two-week deadline to comply with its demands.

The doctors are requesting the following: the immediate payment of all salary arrears; the implementation of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure; a new hazard allowance; and the domestication of the Medical Residency Training Act from the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria. The doctors are also demanding an end to the downgrading of the membership certificate issued by the West African Postgraduate Medical and Surgical Colleges.

of the meantime, the Federal Government (FG) had instructed the Chief Medical Directors and Medical Directors of the Federal Tertiary Hospitals to apply the “no work, no pay” policy to the striking NARD members in a circular dated August 1, 2023.

The FG further instructed the hospitals to keep an attendance record for all resident doctors who were available for work.

NARD, however, announced in a circular dated August 5, 2023 that it will begin a daily pacifist protest and picket of the government to force its demands.

The circular read in part, “We wish to bring to your notice, the decision of the National Executive Council of NARD to embark on daily peaceful protests and picketing of the Federal Ministry of Health, Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, as well as all federal and state tertiary health institutions nationwide, with effect from Wednesday, August 9, 2023, by 10 am.

“This has become necessary to press home our demands which have been largely neglected by our parent ministry and the Federal Government. We are pained that rather than make genuine and concerted efforts to resolve the challenges that led to the industrial action despite repeated ultimatums, our parent ministry and the Federal Government have chosen to demonise Nigerian resident doctors instead, after all, their sacrifices and patriotism.

“We, therefore, resolved that it is time the whole world hears our side of the story – the decay and corruption in the health sector, as well as the neglect the public health institutions have suffered all these years that led to repeated industrial actions.

“We believe that the government still has time to genuinely address the issues at stake before Wednesday, 9th August 2023, or leave us with no other option.”