The resident doctors’ strike

Despite federal government’s overtures to avert the nationwide strike by National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) over unmet demands, it is lamentable that the strike commended on Saturday. Expectedly, the ‘total, comprehensive and indefinite’ strike has paralysed activities in public hospitals nationwide. Some patients will definitely die on account of the strike. Unfortunately, these avoidable deaths cannot be reversed.

NARD went on nationwide strike after the expiration of its 30-day ultimatum to the federal government over unresolved welfare issues. Some of them include excessive work hours, non-payment of outstanding arrears from the 25% and 35% upward review of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS), as well as the unjust dismissal of five resident doctors from the Federal Teaching Hospital, Lokoja, Kogi State. The doctors’ demands also include full implementation of the new allowances proposed in July 2022, immediate recruitment of clinical staff and the removal of bureaucratic bottlenecks that hinder the replacement of exiting doctors.

The federal government has also responded to the strike by approving N11.9billion to pay the arrears owed to doctors, as well as accoutrement allowance. The doctors had earlier said N38 billion was required to avert the strike. According to Alaba Balogun, Deputy Director/Head, Information and Public Relations, Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, “in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Finance, the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare commenced the payment of seven months’ arrears of the 25%/35% upward review of CONMESS and CONHESS to all categories of health workers with N10 billion paid in August 2025.”

The government has also approved the sum of N21.3 billion to pay the arrears owed health workers including members of NARD. At the same time, the government had reportedly released N10.6billion as at September 2025 as full payment for the 2025 Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF), paid exclusively to resident doctors nationwide. The federal government has also granted special waivers to ensure massive recruitment of health workers in all federal tertiary health institutions.

In 2024, over 20,000 health workers, including doctors, nurses and allied professionals were reportedly employed across 58 Federal Health Institutions, under the Renewed Hope Health Agenda’s commitment to boost manpower in the health sector. For 2025, the government has approved the mass recruitment of 15,000 health workers as part of measures to ensure that health care facilities are adequately staffed, safe and equipped to provide the much-needed healthcare to Nigerians.

NARD has swiftly disputed the federal government’s claims over the payment of resident doctors’ seven month’s arrears and accused the government of diverting attention from the demands of the doctors. In a statement signed by NARD’s President Mohammed Suleiman and others, the association stated it had 19 legitimate demands that had been consistently tabled before the federal government. The association also challenged the government to publish names of recruited health care workers across the 58 Federal Health Institutions. “Nigeria’s active pool of resident doctors has dropped from 15,000-16,000 a decade ago to barely 9,000-10,000 today, despite a growing disease burden. Poor remuneration, bureaucratic delays, and unsafe work environments continue to drive the japa syndrome,” NARD stated.

While we note that the resident doctors’ demands are legitimate and genuine, we believe that the doctors should still dialogue more with the federal government and settle the matter amicably. The doctors should reciprocate the government’s recent gesture and see reason to suspend or call off the strike. No doubt, the nation’s health challenge is enormous. It requires more than the present ad hoc approach or measures to fix it. The brain drain in the sector cannot be adequate addressed overnight.

It requires strategic planning and adequate funding of the sector. Nigeria’s recent poor global raking in life expectancy shows that we are not doing so well in health and other sectors. The N38 billion required to settle the doctors’ outstanding arrears and other welfare issues is big on paper. In reality, it is not up to what some state governments spend on worthless projects. Government must do everything to end the strike. This strike should not be allowed to linger. We say this because our health system is so fragile to withstand a prolonged strike by resident doctors. The poor funding of the health sector will always encourage medical tourism and brain drain.

Recently, former Chief Medical Director (CMD) of Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH, Prof. Akin Osibogun, said Nigeria needs about $1billion urgent investment and 360,000 medical doctors to strengthen the health system. The medical expert, who spoke at the 2025 Physicians’ Week Scientific Conference in Lagos, argued that based on the African benchmark of one doctor for every 600 citizens, Nigeria would need about 360,000 doctors to meet its population’s health needs.

The government should factor Osibogun’s views in its healthcare agenda. The federal government should revamp the fragile health sector. It does not need a strike action by NARD before addressing the welfare of their members. Let the government learn how to honour agreements reached with striking workers, including resident doctors.