November 03, (THEWILL) — For the umpteenth time, members of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors, NARD, have embarked on an indefinite strike nationwide. The resident doctors, numbering about 11,000 and spread across 91 healthcare facilities began the strike around 12:00 am on Saturday.
National President of NARD, Dr Mohammad Suleiman, had issued a statement claiming that the strike commenced after the expiration of a 30-day ultimatum given to the Federal Government.
The striking doctors, we are told, are protesting unpaid arrears, delays in allowances and other welfare-related issues despite previous promises from the government to look into them.
Suleiman stated that the strike became unavoidable after several unfulfilled promises and unsuccessful meetings with government representatives to improve conditions of services for resident doctors among other demands.
He also said the Federal Government owed doctors and other health workers across the country an estimated N38 billion in accumulated allowances, among other issues.
As the Osun State chapter of NARD joined the strike on Sunday, health workers in medical centres across the countries’ universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education dissociated themselves from the ongoing industrial action.
Operating under the aegis of the Coalition of Healthcare Professionals in Tertiary Education Institutions in Nigeria, the workers said all the medical facilities nationwide under their care remained fully functional despite the strike.
The coalition comprises doctors, nurses, pharmacists and laboratory scientists working in tertiary institution medical centres under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Education. Its National Chairman, Musa Shehu, reportedly stated that members would not join the strike, stressing that their main focus was the continuous care of patients in their facilities.
Shehu acknowledged that members of the coalition had faced challenges in the past, including marginalisation within the broader health sector, but he maintained that such issues would not deter them from performing their duties.
“You know we are health workers working under the Ministry of Education; naturally, we don’t go on strike. Presently, all our medical centres are operational. Even if NMA and JOHESU are on strike, we don’t usually join them.
“We have the responsibility to ensure that the healthcare of our patients comes first. We want to make it clear that the second-largest group of health workers in Nigeria is not participating in the strike action declared by NARD,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government has started initiating moves to end the doctors’ strike. Less than 24 hours after the commencement of the strike, the government said it would release the sum of N11.995 billion within 72 hours for the payment of outstanding arrears, including accoutrement allowances, to doctors and other health workers across the country. But an unimpressed NARD, it was gathered, waved it aside and vowed that the strike would continue.
As it is, the issues canvassed by the resident doctors remain unaddressed and this puts Nigeria’s healthcare system in jeopardy. We believe that an indefinite strike by the nation’s health workers will not augur well for anybody. As usual, the ordinary people will be the worse for it. It will not only add to their miseries under the present economic situation in the country but also endanger their lives.
We commend the health Professional’s coalition for choosing a sensible option, especially at this very critical stage in Nigeria’s socio-economic history. But this does not mean that NARD lacks the moral right to embark on industrial action. The problem is that this is one strike too many. Nigerians are tired of industrial actions that, for a reason or another, often fall short of the expected outcome. Of course, there are strikes that end up negating the purpose for which they were organised and hurting innocent and law-abiding citizens in the process. This looks like one of them.
