FG denies neglect, hinges standoff on policy issues
Resident doctors have directed all their members in 91 tertiary health institutions nationwide to withdraw their services indefinitely with effect from 12:00 a.m. (midnight) on Monday, January 12, following the Federal Government’s alleged failure to honour the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) freely entered into to address the legitimate demands of the association.
The strike was declared just as the federal government yesterday attributed the ongoing standoff with the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) to structural and policy issues rather than neglect, stressing that the N90 billion yearly increase in health workers’ allowances is evidence of its commitment to industrial harmony in the health sector.
The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Iziaq Adekunle Salako, who stated this during an interview on the AIT Kaakaki programme, noted that the government placed a high priority on maintaining industrial peace and ensuring uninterrupted healthcare delivery.
NARD, however, faulted the claims by the Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Adekunle Salako, that the association’s requests had reduced from 19 to nine, stressing that it compressed its demands into nine items in a press release just to inform Nigerians about the conversations.
“But if you X-ray those nine, they’re actually 16 items,” it explained.
It rejected the decision of the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to redeploy the five disengaged resident doctors of the Federal Teaching Hospital (FTH), Lokoja, to another Federal Teaching Hospital and demanded their immediate and unconditional reinstatement in FTH Lokoja in line with the recommendations of the duly constituted committee.
Briefing journalists yesterday in Abuja, President of NARD, Dr Mohammad Usman Suleiman said that Extraordinary National Executive Council (E-NEC) of NARD convened an emergency meeting on Friday, January 2, 2026, to review the status of implementation of the MoU between NARD and the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (FMoH&SW), as well as the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment (FMoL&E), arising from NARD’s nineteen (19) demands, which address critical welfare, remuneration, and professional practice issues affecting their members nationwide.
He vowed that NARD would resume the previously suspended strike until the Federal Government and the affected state governments demonstrated clear, concrete, and genuine commitment to addressing the association’s demands.
Salako outlined the Federal Government’s actions aimed at addressing resident doctors’ demands and preventing recurring strikes in the health sector and noted that while the government would be pleased to significantly raise health workers’ pay, it must balance such demands with obligations to other sectors, including education, security and national infrastructure, within the limits of available revenue.
The minister observed that the Tinubu-led administration demonstrated its commitment in November 2025 by approving an upward review of professional allowances for health workers, which has added nearly N90 billion to government expenditure every year.
He stated that the increment covered call duty, shift duty, non-clinical duty and rural posting allowances and was reached through joint negotiations involving all health worker groups.
Salako explained that past negotiations were often fragmented, with different health professional groups engaging the government separately, leading to conflicting agreements on pay parity and relativity and triggering repeated industrial actions.
To address this, the ministry initiated and adopted a collective bargaining approach, ensuring that doctors, nurses, laboratory scientists and other health workers negotiated together.
On NARD’s demands, the minister said the association’s requests had reduced from 19 to nine, indicating progress in talks. He explained that some outstanding demands were constrained by existing civil service rules and approved schemes of service.
Salako specifically addressed the demand for specialist allowance for resident doctors, noting that resident doctors are specialists-in-training and that current regulations reserve specialist allowances for consultants.
He added that the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission had advised against extending the allowance to residents, warning it could create similar claims from other health workers undergoing specialist training.
Salako also dismissed claims of inaction on certification issues, explaining that the National Postgraduate Medical College does not issue certificates after candidates pass Part I examinations, a policy that the ministry cannot override.
