FOLASHADE KEHINDE
THE National Association of Resident Doctors has embarked on a nationwide strike.
The President of the Association, Uyilawa Okhuaihesuyi, confirmed on a television programme that the strike commenced at 8am on Thursday.
The doctors made good their threat of embarking on the proposed strike, after the expiration of the 60-day ultimatum given to the Federal Government on January 25 for the payment of arrears of salaries of house officers across the country and the review of hazard allowance, among other demands.
The strike commenced despite the Federal Government’s last-minute efforts to avert it.
THE Minister of Labour and Employment,
Chris Ngige, had appealed to the doctors to shelve their plan at a meeting with the association in Abuja.
He said their withdrawal of service might affect the country’s health system which is already stressed by COVID-19.
But the NARD President said, “The strike commenced at 8am, and we enjoin all resident doctors to start the strike immediately.
“We had a meeting with the Minister of Labour from 4 pm to about 12 am this morning, but as it stands; we are used to memorandum of understandings for over a decade now, and we insist on the implementation of what we wrote on our strike message.”
“We’re not just doing this for resident doctors, we’re doing this for all health workers,” he added.
