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The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) says the government has addressed several issues that led to its planned nationwide strike.
NARD had threatened to begin an indefinite strike on August 10 if the government failed to meet its demands, including the payment of salary and allowance arrears and improvements in doctors’ welfare across federal health institutions.
The association announced the planned action after its ordinary general meeting in Gombe on Thursday.
However, after a meeting with Femi Gbajabiamila, Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu, on Tuesday, NARD President Mohammad Suleiman said the discussions produced agreements on salaries, promotions, allowances, welfare and security.
Suleiman said the issues had largely been resolved but noted that NARD’s National Executive Council would still meet before making a final decision on the strike.
He said the government had agreed to specific timelines for implementing the resolutions reached during the meeting.
“Today, I can tell you, our matters are solved,” Suleiman said.
“I can’t stand here and tell you I have called off a strike. What I’ll do, I have the utmost confidence that what he (Gbajabiamila) has done today has moved the needle to a very large extent to have solved our matters, and we’ll wait for more.
“I have national executive council members. I will have a conversation. I have to report all of this back. We sit down. We take a decision. The point is, the person that called us for this conversation has never failed resident doctors. That is what I am emphasising.
“This is not the first time the chief of staff has intervened in matters relating to resident doctors in this country. About six or seven years ago, when he became speaker, it was the first opportunity he had to intervene, and he has always intervened. Whenever he came into our issues, our matters were solved,” he added.
One of the immediate issues addressed was the welfare of doctors at Lagos University Teaching Hospital, including meal-related entitlements. Suleiman said a one-week timeline had been agreed for implementation.
“Timelines have been agreed upon by various agencies of government on salary and promotion areas. We are talking about the meal issue at LUTH, we are talking about a week for implementation. We have agreed on a figure. We have agreed on numbers,” he stated.
He also said the government had directed that house officers’ salaries be paid by the 10th of every month to prevent delays.
“We also talked about house officers, so that they don’t have to wait a whole month before they get the previous month’s salaries. In fact, he has given a standing order that before the 10th of every month, salaries of house officers must be paid,” he said.
According to him, the presidency also directed the Ministries of Labour and Health to accelerate negotiations on a collective bargaining agreement, with the aim of including the necessary provisions in the 2027 budget.
On security, Suleiman said NARD presented data showing that 31 doctors and more than 20 other health workers had been assaulted over the past 10 months.
He said the Ministry of Health would direct hospitals to strengthen security, establish safe spaces and educate the public on the need to protect health workers.
“Today, we have agreed. The ministry of health is going to release directives to their hospitals to beef up security and create safe spaces. The ministry of health is going to engage the public in public education for health workers not to be assaulted,” the NARD’s president said.
Suleiman added that Gbajabiamila had also committed to supporting legislation that would make assaults on health workers an aggravated offence.
“The chief of staff has taken it upon himself to introduce legislation so that the national assembly can come in with something that will make assault on health workers an aggravated offence. We are very glad with that. We think it will send the right signal that health workers should not be assaulted,” Suleiman stated.
He said the government had corrected a salary shortfall in February 2026 but that a 19-month backlog covering payments from July 2024 remained outstanding.
