Despite the meeting which took place with a federal government delegation to find a solution to the pending issues, the National Association Resident Doctors (NARD) commenced an indefinite strike on Thursday.
“We commence strike 8 a.m. today while we are still trying to evaluate the federal government’s offer,” the president of the association, Uyilawa Okhuaihesuyi reported.
Prior to this, NARD had issued a threat to commence an ‘indefinite strike’ on Thursday if the Nigerian government fails to meet up with their demands.
As reported by Mr Okhuaihesuyi, this resolution was reached after NARD’s extraordinary National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held on Saturday.
The federal government was given an ultimatum to meet the association’s earlier demands and would expire on March 31, with no significant achievement.
On Wednesday, a government delegation led by labour minister Chris Ngige met with the doctors to avert the strike.
Mr Ngige pleaded with the aggrieved doctors to reconsider and think of what the damage their withdrawal of services would cause the country’s health system already stressed by the coronavirus and also, it is noted that resident doctors, who are undergoing training to become consultants, make up a large percentage of doctors in Nigeria’s tertiary hospitals.
