Ajirioghene Imah
The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has confirmed plans to embark on a five-day warning strike which will commence on Wednesday as a result of the Federal Government failing to meet its demand.
This was revealed by the President of the association, Dr. Emeka Orji, after a six-hour National Executive Council (NEC) meeting.
NEWSTODAYNG recalled that the resident doctors had on April 29 issued a two-week ultimatum to the Federal Government to meet its demands, adding that the government’s refusal to reach out has led to its decision on a nationwide five-day warning strike.
According to Orji, if the current government, although in transition, does not intervene meaningfully, it would embark on a full-blown indefinite strike nationwide.
However, he called on the President-elect, Sen. Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to bring his experience to bear and intervene in the issue, stating that his intervention will send a message of hope to its members and Nigerians.
In his words, “We issued a 14-day ultimatum expecting that the government will address many of these issues or at least call us for negotiation. But there was no attempt by the government to try to resolve it.
“The only attempt we saw was the official invitation to a meeting by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, which was cancelled at the last minute without any notice or tangible explanation.
“The Federal Ministry of Health did not bat an eyelid or make any attempt to resolve these issues. And our members feel that this is not something that they will accept.
“We only considered that this government just has two weeks, and it will be unfair to welcome the government of the President-elect, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu with an indefinite strike. It is also not good for Nigerians for whom we believe this struggle is.
“However, at the expiration of the five-day warning strike, we are going to meet again. We believe that the incoming administration is also seeing what is happening.
“If this current government feels that they have finished their administration and that government cannot run again until they handover, we believe that the incoming government should wade in at this point, and at least call for negotiation so that we will know what exactly is going on.
“If we do not have any meaningful inputs to help convince our members at the end of the five-day warning strike ultimatum, then, the National Officers cannot guarantee that we are not going to proceed on an indefinite strike action”.