Nigerian Doctors Begin Nationwide Strike Amid COVID-19 Surge

File photo

It has been reported that the members of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors, NARD, have unanimously agreed to embark on an indefinite strike from Monday.

According to Daily Post, the doctors reached the decision following their National Executive Council (NEC) meeting by over 50 members across the country.

NARD noted the Federal Government has failed to honour and implement the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) it signed with them after over 100 days.

Dr Uyilawa Okhuaihesuyi, President of the NARD, who made this known in a statement at the weekend, demanded immediate withdrawal of the circular removing House Officers from the scheme of service, which was not implemented.

The statement read in part, “We are embarking on a total and indefinite strike on August 2, 2021 [Monday]. You can recall we had a memorandum of action on March 31, 2021, and had an addendum to it on April 9, and since then, we still have had irregularities in the payment of salaries to the house officers.

“We had issues with them being non-regular payment and as part of the memorandum of action, it was said that they should be captured back into the IPPS platform.”

The strike is coming at a very critical period when the nation is currently experiencing a rise in COVID-19 infections amid the third wave of the pandemic.