The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) says issues around its planned nationwide strike have been resolved.
On Thursday, NARD said it would embark on a nationwide strike from August 10 if the federal government fails to address its demands.
In a communique issued after its ordinary general meeting (OGM) held in Gombe, the association said the demands include the payment of salary and allowance arrears and resolution of welfare issues affecting doctors across federal health institutions.
The communique was signed by Mohammad Suleiman, NARD president; Shuaibu Ibrahim, secretary-general; and Abdulmajid Yahya Ibrahim, publicity and social secretary.
Speaking on Tuesday after a meeting with Femi Gbajabiamila, chief of staff to President Bola Tinubu, Suleiman, NARD’s president said the discussions produced concrete agreements on several contentious issues, including salaries, promotions, allowances and welfare concerns that had prompted the strike ultimatum.
“Today, I can tell you, our matters are solved,” Suleiman said.
“I can’t stand here and tell you I have called off a strike. What I’ll do, I have the utmost confidence that what he (Gbajabiamila) has done today has moved the needle to a very large extent to have solved our matters, and we’ll wait for more.
“I have national executive council members. I will have a conversation. I have to report all of this back. We sit down. We take a decision. The point is, the person that called us for this conversation has never failed resident doctors. That is what I am emphasising.
“This is not the first time the chief of staff has intervened in matters relating to resident doctors in this country. About six or seven years ago, when he became speaker, it was the first opportunity he had to intervene, and he has always intervened. Whenever he came into our issues, our matters were solved.”
The NARD’s president said the association had secured commitments tied to specific implementation timeline.
Suleiman said one of the immediate resolutions concerned welfare issues at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), including meal-related entitlements.
“Timelines have been agreed upon by various agencies of government on salary and promotion areas. We are talking about the meal issue at LUTH, we are talking about a week for implementation. We have agreed on a figure. We have agreed on numbers,” he stated.
The NARD president said the federal government had issued a directive aimed at ending persistent delays in the payment of house officers’ salaries.
“We also talked about house officers, so that they don’t have to wait a whole month before they get the previous month’s salaries. In fact, he has given a standing order that before the 10th of every month, salaries of house officers must be paid,” he said.
Suleiman said the presidency had instructed the ministries of labour and health to fast-track negotiations on collective bargaining agreement to ensure provision reflects in the 2027 budget cycle.
“The conversations have been very, very robust,” he added.
Suleiman noted that the association presented data showing that 31 doctors and more than 20 other health workers had been assaulted in the last 10 months.
“Today, we have agreed. The ministry of health is going to release directives to their hospitals to beef up security and create safe spaces. The ministry of health is going to engage the public in public education for health workers not to be assaulted,” the NARD’s president said.
He explained that Gbajabiamila had undertaken to push for legislative measures to make attacks on health workers a more serious criminal offence.
“The chief of staff has taken it upon himself to introduce legislation so that the national assembly can come in with something that will make assault on health workers an aggravated offence. We are very glad with that. We think it will send the right signal that health workers should not be assaulted,” Suleiman stated.
He said although the Tinubu administration corrected the shortfall in February 2026, a backlog covering 19 months from July 2024 remained unpaid.