NARD Imposes New Rules to Halt Strike

The head of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors, Dr. Mohammad Suleiman, has revealed that the association's National Executive ...

The head of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors, Dr. Mohammad Suleiman, has revealed that the association's National Executive Council has established the criteria needed to halt the current open-ended strike.

As per Suleiman, the NEC of NARD has reduced its requests to seven key matters that need to be resolved.

In an interview with Saturday PUNCH on Friday, Suleiman stated that while three mediation sessions took place and 19 points were addressed and accepted, the government had only carried out a few of the decisions, specifically a partial payment of the 25–35 per cent allowance.

Medical services came to a standstill across the country on November 1, 2025, when the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors initiated a strike, with approximately 11,000 resident doctors from 91 teaching hospitals leaving their posts to protest inadequate working conditions and unmet allowances.

The interruption of healthcare services worsened on November 15 when the Joint Health Sector Unions launched an indefinite strike, causing worries in various states and increasing fears regarding patient safety and the reliability of hospital functions.

Suleiman stated, "We held three mediation sessions. We reached consensus on all 19 points. Indeed, everyone agreed that each of them required resolution, and there were schedules in place for addressing them."

As he stated, the NEC has recently simplified its requirements to seven main points that need to be addressed right away in order to halt the strike.

These involve the return of the Lokoja doctors, the unveiling of the Professional Allowance Table, the settlement of promotion back pay, the payment of salary arrears in certain hospitals, the execution of an upgrade for doctors who completed Part I exams and met entry-level criteria, the introduction of a specialist allowance, and the fixing of the Membership Certificate problem.

"NEC said that when the government resolves these issues, we will return and halt this strike. That is our current situation," he stated.

He mentioned that specific deadlines were set during the discussions, especially on the previous Friday, for important steps to be carried out. These included preparing the amount of promotion arrears, compiling salary arrears in affected hospitals, issuing a letter to the Accountant-General about upgrade matters, and obtaining a reply from the Head of Service regarding the entry point for doctors, which had been reduced from Consolidated Medical Salary Structure three to CONMESS two.

He stated, "Today is Friday, exactly one week after the deadline, and those compilations have still not been sent to the Minister of Finance or the Budget Office. The Head of Service has not provided any explanation. We are still waiting for an update on the Professional Allowance Table. Additionally, the two-week extension given for certain matters has now ended without any advancements."

The Lokoja matter we discussed—two weeks after November 6—ended yesterday (Thursday). The report has not been submitted yet. No complete demand has been fulfilled, except for the 25–35 per cent allowance, which is also not fully provided. We all agreed that 40 per cent of our members have not received this amount.

We agreed that the remittance payment report would be issued by IPPIS as of last Friday. This is the following week's Friday, and the report has still not been created. Regarding the allowance for those on the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System, we have prepared the list, but it has been very problematic, with instances of double payments.

Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc.Syndigate.info).