Resident Doctors Begin Nationwide Strike On Thursday

Doctors StrikeThe National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) will on Thursday, June 9, embark on a nationwide strike, the National President of the association, Dr. Muhammad Askira, has disclosed.
Speaking to journalists on Tuesday in Kano, Askira said the decision to go on strike was taken at the ordinary general meeting of the National Executive Council of the association held between May 30 and June 5 in Jos, Plateau State.
The NARD president recalled that 16 out of 58 federal tertiary institutions or centres were exempted from the initial centre-based strike as a result of the commitment of the Chief Medical Directors of the affected health institutions to implement the federal government’s directives.
He, however, warned that if by midnight of Sunday, June 19 the demands of the resident doctors are not met, it would be an all-out industrial action as all members of NARD, including those initially exempted, would join the indefinite nationwide strike.
Dr. Askira said the association found it necessary to take the painful decision in order to draw the plight of the general public to the long period of deprivation and disenfranchisement resident doctors have had to endure, stressing that NARD will continue to be open to discussion and ready to partner government to ensure effective health care service delivery to Nigerians.