Nigerian Doctors Call Off Strike, To Resume Work On Wednesday

The National Association of Resident Doctors has suspended its strike action today, 63 days after it embarked on the nationwide industrial action.

After long hours of deliberation, the National Executive Council (NEC) of NARD led by its National President of NARD, Godiya Ishaya said the suspension will take effect on Wednesday, October 6, 2021.

Ishaya, in an interview, said, “We are suspending the strike for six weeks to give room for movement in some of the items we noticed a stalemate. There was a stalemate in the enrollment of our members into the IPPIS and payment of their areas.”

He said, “We held an emergency meeting from 5:30 pm on Sunday to the morning hours of today, and the NEC decided that having reviewed the progress made so far, the strike should be suspended.”

“The government was invoking the trade dispute article 41, that is the ‘no work, no pay.’ And since they have been enrolled into IPPIS, it means there was not going to be any salary in their accounts. Without them being paid, they won’t get their areas; that was a stalemate we felt we should give a window to see if the government can start paying them salaries and push their areas into their accounts.

“On the issue of ‘no work, no pay,’ we have not agreed to forfeit our salaries. The strike was unnecessarily prolonged because of the government’s response to the strike. Instead of sitting on the table, the government decided to go to court and that kept prolonging negotiation.”

The Striking doctors have embarked on a nationwide indefinite strike since August 2, 2021, to press home their demands.