The President, National Association of
Resident Doctors (NARD), Dr Jibril Abdullahi, said on
Friday the nationwide strike by the association was
suspended in the public interest. Abdullahi said this in an interview with Journalists
in Abuja on Friday. The association suspended its more than three-
week long strike, which started on Oct. 1, after its
National Executive Council meeting in Abuja on
Thursday. He said that a Memorandum of Understanding
(MoU) on the suspension of the strike was signed at
the meeting between the leadership of the
association and representatives of the Federal
Government and labour. “Our last discussion was on Monday Oct. 21; that
was exactly three weeks after the start of the strike. “The government made some concessions,
although they did not meet the target of our
members. “We felt in the interest of what is happening in the
country, namely: the outbreak of cholera in Lagos
and Gusau; the outbreak of Lassa fever in
Abakaliki, it was high time we soft-pedaled and
allowed dialogue to continue, hoping that the
government will play its own role in ensuring our agreement is implemented. “The President and Commander-In-Chief has
already mandated the Minister of Health and
Minister of Finance to work together in resolving
this impasse. “We felt the commitment of the President is good
enough for us to tell our members in the interest of
the country, the health of our people, we should
soft pedal and resume our duties.“ Abdullahi said that the Federal Government
constituted a task force to ensure the immediate
payment of the funds released for the settlement of
salary arrears owed its members in 15 hospitals
across the country. He added that an inter-ministerial committee on
residency training would also be constituted to
work toward a comprehensive residency training
framework for the country. Abdullahi called on patriotic Nigerians to take up
the issue of residency training as a matter of
national discourse which would help in
transforming the health sector collectively. He said: “Residency training is not only in our
interest but first of all in the interest of the whole
nation. “So, we can ensure our country attains the level of
expertise whereby we will end this waste of
foreign exchange in the pursuit of medical tourism
abroad.’’ The association went on strike over the non-
payment of salary arrears of some doctors for over
four months under the Integrated Personnel and
Payroll Information System (IPPIS) arrangement. Other issues were the training and retraining of
resident doctors and the implementation of the
Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) at
the Enugu State University Teaching Hospital (NAN). www.vanguardngr.com/2013/10/resident-doctors-call-strike/