FG begs resident doctors to halt planned strike

THE Federal Government has appealed to resident doctors to put on hold their decision to go embark on a nationwide strike starting from today.

The Minister of labour and employment, Chris Ngige made the appeal at a meeting with the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) yesterday in Abuja.

Ngige said the majority of the welfare issues in contention were almost resolved before the planned strike action was announced.

“We are here because we have started solving your issues. We put up proposals with given timelines on how to deal with them,” he said.

“We will look at those proposals with you, fix adequate timelines so that the people on government side will be implementing and marking them as they execute them.

“I have held informal meetings with the finance ministry and they told me they have started solving some of the problems.

“The two committees in the national assembly have also tried to get you and your employers on same page.

“We have to intervene to ensure industrial peace in the health industry. We are also in a very bad period health wise the world over, and Nigeria is not an exception.

“So, we have to think about the generality of Nigerians. Because right now, 80 percent of Nigerians are our patients because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“So we have to look at the issues that way and see how we can get the best out of this situation.” Ngige added.

He called on the resident doctors to consider the plight of the 80 percent of the citizenry in need of healthcare services, should they withdraw their services

The leadership of National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) over the weekend called on its members to commence what it called “a total and indefinite strike” starting from 8am today if the Federal Government refuses to accede to its demands.

NARD had cited poor working condition and demeaning renumeration, among others, as the reason why its memebers would go on strike.

The NARD President, Dr. Uyilawa Okhuaihesuyi, while speaking to newsmen said, , “NARD and her members had at each time in the spirit of patriotism, shown uncommon understanding and extreme patience in the face of poor working conditions.

“Nigerian doctors currently have about the worst remuneration across the world and this has only worsened in recent time.

“The paltry $10 monthly hazard allowance a year after a memorandum of understanding was signed with the Federal Government has yet to be reviewed.

“Currently, well over 2,500 of our members are owed salaries ranging from three to five months even as they contended with the triple outbreaks of Yellow fever, Lassa fever and Covid – 19 pandemic, among others”