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President Bola Tinubu has directed that the ongoing industrial action by the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) should be brought to an end as soon as practicable. The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Adekunle Salako, who disclosed this on Monday at a briefing in Abuja said President Tinubu has directed the Ministry to take every legitimate step to restore health services nationwide. Towards this end, Salako explained that most of the union’s 19-point demands are already being addressed through dialogue, recruitment, and financial interventions. NARD has, however, dismissed the government’s claims as misleading and far from reality. While expressing regret over the hardship caused by the industrial action, the Minister assured that negotiations with the striking doctors were ongoing. Salako explained that a Collective Bargaining Agreement mechanism, chaired by the Minister of Labour, has been in place since August to harmonize the interests of all health professionals. Twelve meetings have been held so far, with an external industrial relations consultant engaged to mediate contentious issues, including pay relativity, remuneration parity, and the creation of a consultant cadre for non-medical doctors. “Healthcare delivery is teamwork, and we must find collective solutions rather than isolated agreements that create further divisions,” he said. To tackle manpower shortages, Salako disclosed that 14,444 health workers were recruited across 64 federal tertiary institutions in 2024, while approval was given to employ another 23,059 in 2025, including 2,629 resident doctors and 868 consultants. He added that President Tinubu has approved an increase in the retirement age for clinical staff to 65 years and established a committee, including NARD representatives to develop a universal protocol for hiring locum doctors, with a report expected soon. On welfare, the Minister confirmed that the government has begun releasing funds to settle arrears. “A total of ₦21.3 billion has been released, with about 60 percent of affected workers already paid. Another ₦11.9 billion is being processed, while ₦10 billion was earlier disbursed under the Medical Residency Training Fund to support postgraduate examinations,” he said. Read Also: Tinubu aide hails Oyebanji’s induction into Ekiti varsity Hall of Fame He also added that the government is also addressing the migration of health workers by expanding medical training capacity to meet local needs and potentially export skilled labour, saying, “Nigeria is working toward transforming its health professionals into assets that contribute to both national service and foreign exchange earnings”. He explained that a new recruitment framework now allows annual employment of permanent staff while empowering hospital chief executives to hire temporary workers between cycles. He also announced that a ministerial task force will monitor hospital operations to ensure efficiency among health workers not participating in the strike. Alausa confirmed that ₦41 billion in arrears was owed under the 25%/35% CONMESS review, noting that ₦31 billion has already been paid or processed, representing about 83 percent of the total debt, which would soon be completed. He also clarified that there has been no downgrade of doctors’ professional qualifications, contrary to rumours circulating among practitioners. The representative of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) explained that the Council only undertook a categorisation exercise for additional qualifications such as fellowships and memberships, classifying them from categories A to D based on the awarding institution, specialty, and qualification type. The Council advised doctors whose certificates were wrongly classified to resubmit them for correction and urged new colleges to formally notify the Council for proper recognition. Despite the strike, Salako assured that consultants across federal tertiary health institutions were working to sustain critical services. He said outpatient and emergency departments remain functional, though at reduced capacity, while surgeries and urgent treatments continue nationwide. He appealed for public understanding, adding that a task force has been deployed to ensure compliance and accountability among health workers still on duty. In a statement on Monday by its President, Dr. Mohammad Suleiman; Secretary-General, Dr. Shuaibu Ibrahim; and Publicity Secretary, Dr. Abdulmajeed Yahya, the association said none of its 19-point demands had been fully addressed. The association said only a small fraction of the funds disbursed by the government actually reached resident doctors. “Our demands represent the minimum requirements for a functional healthcare system and the restoration of dignity to medical practice in Nigeria,” the group stated. The association argued that the strike was not merely about unpaid arrears but about survival and humane working conditions. “Nigerian doctors are collapsing from exhaustion in hazardous environments without recognition or compensation. The ongoing migration of doctors is driven by hardship, not greed,” NARD said. While reiterating its openness to dialogue, the association insisted that “industrial peace cannot be achieved through press statements but through justice, sincerity, and respect for agreements.” It urged Nigerians to see the strike as a struggle for the survival of both healthcare workers and patients, not as an act against the public.
