LAGOS, Nigeria — The leadership of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors, NARD, has announced the suspension of its week-long warning strike, which was embarked upon on Wednesday, May 17, 2023.
This follows an agreement reached with the Nigerian government, offering a glimmer of hope in the country’s beleaguered public health sector.
The president of the association, Emeka Orji, conveyed the decision to the press, on Sunday, May 21, 2023, stating, “The association suspended the action for two weeks after reaching some agreement with the government on Friday, May 19, 2023.”
This suspension of the strike marks a preliminary step towards addressing the doctors’ grievances and mitigating the impact on the country’s healthcare system.
However, this truce might only be a temporary one. According to Dr. Orji, the doctors will reconvene on June 2, 2023, to “review progress made with the agreement signed,” after which they will decide their next line of action.
This conditional pause in the strike signals that the physicians’ dissatisfaction with the government’s handling of their demands remains unresolved, potentially reigniting tensions in the coming weeks.
NARD had previously embarked on a five-day warning strike beginning May 17, following the lapse of a 14-day ultimatum to the Nigerian government.
The doctors, unsatisfied with their working conditions, have been demanding the payment of all salary arrears for their members and an immediate upgrade of infrastructure in public hospitals.
Channels Television earlier reported that the resident doctors and the Federal Government reached an agreement over the warning strike.
But the specifics of the agreement are yet to be publicized, raising concerns about the transparency of the process.
This recent development underscores the fragile balance in Nigeria’s healthcare system, one that has been under stress due to recurrent strikes by healthcare professionals demanding better working conditions and the payment of owed salaries.
The coming weeks will be crucial in observing whether the reached agreement will hold, or if the precarious situation will revert to the standstill of a full-scale strike.
