Resident doctors across Nigeria have called off the indefinite strike action which commenced 29 days ago.
The doctors under the umbrella of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) said the industrial action was suspended following the decision of their leaders at an ‘extraordinary’ National Executive Council meeting held on Saturday.
In a post made on X, NARD’s President, Muhammad Suleiman, said the strike has been suspended for another four weeks.
According to Suleiman, NARD’s suspension of the strike followed the Memorandum of Understanding with the federal government.
The doctors had outlined the status of NARD’s 19-point demands stating the key outstanding issues such as payment of promotion and salary arrears.
“The outstanding issues at the stage of implementation are as follows: Promotion Arrears: Compilation hasn’t been completed by CMDs/MDs, and as such, the deadline for payment is in four weeks,” he wrote.
“Salary Arrears: Deadline for payment has been agreed at four weeks; Specialist Allowance: Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF) has issued a clear direction on this and NSIWC to take appropriate action with a view to implementation.
“On Lokoja five: The committee report recommended reabsorption back into Federal Teaching Hospital Lokoja, to be fully implemented within two weeks.”
He also said that the executives in their wisdom reviewed the issues and decided to suspend the strike for four weeks as a gesture of goodwill.
This, he said allows time to monitor the implementation of their demands by the FG.