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The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), on Saturday, threatened to shut down Nigeria’s health system with a nationwide strike, if the National Assembly fails to throw out the anti-brain drain bill.
A member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Ganiyu Johnson sponsored the bill which is aimed at addressing the mass exodus of doctors abroad in search of greener pastures.
The bill, among other things, seeks to mandate Nigerian-trained medical and dental practitioners to practice for a minimum of five years in the country before being granted a full licence.
But, the resident doctors in a communique, issued at the end of their extra-ordinary National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, held in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital demanded the withdrawal of the bill.
The doctors issued a two-week ultimatum to the Federal government to begin the implementation of 200 percent salary increment for doctors.
Addressing journalists after the meeting, the National President of NARD, Dr. Orji Emeka Innocent, vowed that, there was no going back on the strike if the government fails to meet all their demands.
Innocent insisted that the bill was ill-conceived and targeted at “enslaving young Nigerian doctors by restricting their fundamental human rights of freedom of choice and movement”.
He said, the bill if passed would further escalate the challenge of brain drain in the health sector than solve it.
“NEC resolved to issue government a two-week ultimatum beginning today, 29th April 2023, to resolve all these demands, following the expiration of which on the 13th May 2023, we may not be able to guarantee industrial harmony in the sector nationwide”, the NARD President said.
He also lamented the infrastructural decay in the health sector and the poor funding of the sector.
Some of the demands of the doctors included: “immediate withdrawal and jettisoning of the ill-conceived bill by Honorable Ganiyu Johnson on the enslavement of young doctors in Nigeria.
“Immediate payment of the 2023 medical residency training fund (MRTF) in line with the agreements reached at the stakeholders’ meeting convened by the federal ministry of health at the Honourable Minister of State for Health’s conference room.
“Commencement of payment of all salary arrears owed our members including 2014, 2015, and 2016 salary arrears as well as areas of the consequential adjustment of the minimum wage.
“Immediate massive recruitment of clinical staff in the hospitals and complete abolishment of bureaucratic limitations to the immediate replacement of doctors who leave the system.
“Immediate infrastructural development in our various hospitals without further delay and insists on at least 15 percent budgetary allocation to health subsequently.”
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