BREAKING: Resident doctors suspend strike, give FG 4 weeks to meet demands
- NARD has shelved its strike action which started on Thursday, April 1
- The association made the wise decision on Saturday, April 10
- However, the federal government, according to NARD's leadership, has just one month to make good its promises
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The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), through its president, Uyilawa Okhuaihesuyi, said it has agreed to put a halt to its industrial action.
Okhuaihesuyi confirmed this to The Nation on Saturday, April 10, adding that the new decision came after some promising resolves reached by NARD and the federal government.
Source: Twitter
However, NARD's boss said the organisation has given the government not more than two weeks to meet its demands.
His words:
“The strike has been suspended. The government gave us some good comebacks from our negotiations.
“We had an emergency National Executive Council (NEC) meeting an hour ago, and we decided to suspend the strike for four weeks.”
Earlier, members of NARD on Thursday commenced a nationwide strike. According to the association, Nigeria lost over N576 billion ($1.2billion) yearly to medical tourism lamenting that the country had no three-star government-owned tertiary health institution.
On her part, a former vice president of the association, Julian Ojebo, said none of the demands made nine months ago have been met by the federal government. Experts say the government has a history of not respecting contracts and honouring agreements it entered into.
However, the federal government and NARD, according to other reports, had signed an agreement to avert the indefinite strike.
The agreement was before the latest decision by the doctors to embark on strike, despite the last-minute efforts by government officials to convince them otherwise.
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Some Nigerians had been reacting to the news on social media.
Comrade Shedrack Fubara wrote on Twitter:
“Nigeria Resident Doctors proceed on a nationwide strike while Buhari the president who vowed not to seek medical treatment abroad is away in the UK as a medical tourist. Citizens are left to suffer their fate. Nigeria on the brink, everything is falling apart.”
Samuel Taiwo wrote:
“Nigerian resident doctors commence strike while the Nigerian president travels to seek medical attention. Where did we actually get it wrong???”
Source: Legit.ng
