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The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has rejected a 25 per cent basic salary increase offered by the government. The association also rejected the N25,000 peculiar allowance approved for medical and dental doctors in the federal public service.
The Bola Tinubu administration, on Wednesday, approved the rate as peculiar allowance for health workers, few hours after the doctors’ association began its national indefinite strike.
The government conveyed the approval of the allowance to the striking doctors via a letter dated 26 July and signed by the Chairman of the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC), Ekpo Nta.
The letter reads in part; “The federal government has approved the payment of an Accoutrement allowance of N25,000.00 per quarter to medical and dental doctors in hospitals, medical centres, and clinics in the federal public service. The allowance is to be paid from the overhead budget.”
Rejection
The President of NARD, Emeka Orji, in a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES on Saturday, said the National Executive Council (NEC) of the association observed the “paltry 25 per cent” increment in the basic salary of doctors as contained in the circular released by NSIWC in the wake of the strike, as well as the accouterment allowance.
Mr Orji said NEC rejects the increase and calls for the fulfillment of the agreement between the doctors and the Nigerian government.
“NEC vehemently rejects the paltry 25 per cent increment in the basic salary of doctors, as well as the accouterment allowance,” adding that the association’s earlier demand is “for full restoration of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure to its right value as at the time of the approval of the structure in 2009,” he said.
He said the strike continues indefinitely “until reasonable progress is made by the government” to address the association’s demands as contained in the ultimatum earlier issued to the federal government.
Doctors’ strike
The doctors embarked on an indefinite industrial action in the early hours of Wednesday following what they described as the failure of the Nigerian government to meet their demands.
This came after the expiration of a two-week ultimatum earlier issued to the government.
The association said the two-week ultimatum, which ended on 19 July, was to give the government adequate time to begin implementation of the resolutions of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) previously agreed on.
PREMIUM TIMES reported how the strike is disrupting health services in health facilities in Lagos and Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city.
READ ALSO: Nigerian govt to meet demands of striking doctors soon Abbas
The resident doctors comprise the bulk of medical personnel in Nigeria’s tertiary hospitals; hence health activities are mostly crippled when they are on strike.
Doctors demand
The doctors are demanding, among other issues, the immediate payment of the 2023 Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF), tangible steps on the “upward review” of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS), and payment of all salary arrears owed its members, since 2015.
The doctors also want immediate massive recruitment of clinical staff in the hospitals and abolishment of the bureaucratic limitations to the immediate replacement of doctors and nurses who leave the system.
They also want the immediate review of hazard allowance by all the state governments as well as private tertiary health institutions where any form of residency training is done.
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