The Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives has appealed to resident doctors in the country to put their planned strike on hold for two weeks to enable the intervention of the parliament.
Speaker Tajudeen Abbas made the appeal at a meeting with the leadership of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors, NARD.
Over time, resident Doctors in Nigeria have been at daggers drawn with the government over pressing Labour issues.
In May, the Association called its members out on a five-day warning strike over unmet demands.
The warning strike was in the aftermath of the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the government and the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors, NARD.
The doctors later issued a two-week ultimatum to the authorities, criticising the government for not keeping to the letters of the MoU.
Among their demands are
*Payment of 2023 Medical Training Fund
*Immediate implementation of a minimum of 200.per cent increment in consolidated medical salary structure
*Upward review of associated Allowances
* Non release of the circular on one for one replacement of clinical staff lost to brain Drain.
This meeting led by the Speaker is to find means of averting another strike in the nation’s hospitals.
While he understands the agitations of the doctors, his appeal is that they put the planned strike on hold while the parliament intervenes.
The meeting goes into a closed door session which ends after about two hours.
At the end of the meeting, NARD President, Innocent Orji, says government has failed to keep to timelines outlined in the MoU.
Nevertheless, he says the leadership will take the Speaker’s plea to his members
