Resident Doctors Call Off Strike

All Resident Doctors are to resume on Wesdnesday, says Dr Godiya Ishaya.  The National Association of Resident Doctors speaking through the association president, Dr Godiya Ishaya has called off the strike that lasted for 63days.

Dr Godiya Ishaya, in an interview with our correspondent, said, “We are suspending the strike for six weeks to give room for movement in some of the items we noticed a stalemate. There was a stalemate in the enrollment of our members into the IPPIS and payment of their areas.

The government was invoking the trade dispute article 41, that is the ‘no work, no pay.’ And since they have been enrolled into IPPIS, it means there was not going to be any salary into their accounts. Without them being paid, they won’t get their areas; that was a stalemate we felt we should give a window to see if the government can start paying them salaries and push their areas into their accounts.

“On the issue of ‘no work, no pay,’ we have not agreed to forfeit our salaries. The strike was unnecessarily prolonged because of the government’s response to the strike. Instead of sitting on the table, the government decided to go to court and that kept prolonging negotiation.”

Ishaya added that the National Executive Council of the Association would meet after six weeks to determine the next line of action.

Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) formerly known as National Association of Resident Doctors of Nigeria is the parent body of all Association of Resident Doctors (ARD)s of Nigeria. It is an affiliate of the Nigerian Medical Association(NMA). It has 76 branches domiciled mainly in Federally and State-owned Teaching Hospitals, Specialist Hospitals and Public health institutions of the Federal Capital Territory. There is a general perception of NARD as the foot soldiers of the NMA. It represents about 40% of Nigerian doctors.