The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has
suspended its nationwide protest earlier scheduled to commence today, August 9.
Federal government representatives had met with the doctors
on Tuesday over their ongoing strike action and the planned protest.
Emeka Orji, NARD president, had said the outcome of the
meeting would determine if the protest would go on.
Orji disclosed this, after the meeting that “the protest has
been suspended. We review again in 72 hours”.
It was also learnt that the association took the decision
after a meeting with Godswill Akpabio, the senate president, and other
principal officers of the upper legislative chamber.
“We had a very fruitful meeting with the senate led by the
president of the senate and from our discussions with them, we are very hopeful
that when we table our discussions today before the NEC, something positive
would come out,” Orji told journalists.
“From our interaction with the president of the senate and
the practical demonstration he did before us today, we are very confident that
there would be light at the end of the tunnel in the next 24 hours.
“Because of the
intervention of the president of the senate, who is the number three citizen
and the assurance he has given us, our planned national protest has been
cancelled while the decision on the ongoing strike would be taken as soon as we
meet.”
On his part, Akpabio assured the doctors that the President
Bola Tinubu administration will accede to their demands.
“I thank you on behalf of the senate for honouring us with
your decision not only to cancel the planned public protest but to also call
off the strike in the interest of the suffering masses,” Akpabio said.
“Your demands are well noted and let me assure you that as
soon as a minister in charge of health is appointed, the senate will work with
him or her to expeditiously address all your grievances.
“The President Bola
Tinubu-led administration is doctors friendly and that explains the large
number of medical practitioners he has appointed into his cabinet.”
THE DEMANDS
The association had embarked on an indefinite strike on July
26 over the failure of the government to implement its demands.
Parts of the demands include payment of the 2023 medical
residency training fund (MRTF); immediate release of the circular on
one-for-one replacement and upward review of the consolidated medical salary
structure (CONMESS).
Others are payment of outstanding arrears of consequential
adjustment, hazard and skipping allowance.
Amid the strike action, NARD had announced that its members
would embark on peaceful nationwide protests from Wednesday, August 9.
The association said the protests would involve picketing of
the federal ministry of health, the office of the head of the civil service of
the federation, and the federal and state tertiary health institutions across
the country.
Speaking on Channels Television on Sunday, the NARD
president had said it fixed its protest on Wednesday to allow some time for the
federal government to intervene.
“We had options of
starting these protests on Monday but we shifted it to give the federal
government enough time to intervene,” he had said.
Resident doctors are medical school graduates training as
specialists. They are a critical mass of frontline healthcare provision in
Nigeria and dominate the emergency wards of the nation’s hospitals.
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