The on-going strike embarked upon by Resident Doctors in Nigeria will end whenever the Federal Government decides it wants to. That’s the position of the Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), who on Monday, decided to resume its suspended strike. The strike is coming almost four months after the association called off its industrial action.
President of the association, Dr Uyilawa Okhuaihesuyi, told Nigeria Info that none of the demands made by the doctors has been met.
‘’The duration of the strike would be determined by the government not us,” Okhuaihesuyi said emphatically insisting that apart “signing of paper of memorandum of understanding, memorandum of action,” nothing significant has been done.
“We have had many negotiations with the government, over 7-8 times this year,” he added.
The NARD President insisted that the reason for the strike is due to the failure of the government to fulfill its promises made to the association with regards to the welfare of its members.
‘’The welfare of our members starting from those we lost due to Covid-19. 19 of our members we lost, also no hazard allowance, no allowance of 5000 has been paid to any of members since 1991. Also we have members in the platform that have not been paid 6-7 months salaries all over the country.’’
Meanwhile, Vice President of the association Christopher Arome, added the doctors are not backing down until their demands are met. Dr Arome made this known while speaking as a guest on Nigeria Info’s Morning Crossfire on Monday.
According to him, ’’no doctor goes on strike because of selfish reasons, when we go on strike it is because we have no other option’’. He accused the government of being ‘’insensitive to the plight of Nigerians’’.
Dr Arome blamed the Head of Service of the federation Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan, who ironically is a doctor, and the Registrar of Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, Dr Sanusi, for the present strike action of Resident doctors. According to him, Dr Sanusi ordered that the dues of house officers should not be remitted.
‘’Dr Sanusi gave explicit order that the dues should not be remitted to the house officers because we let Nigerians let of his poor attitude towards his own work. He is at fault for most of the issues that we are witnessing.’’
