With high unemployment rates, inflation, ongoing insecurity in various parts of the country, and the COVID-19 pandemic on its issue list, the last thing Nigeria needs is a doctors’ strike. 
But that is exactly what happened on Thursday as the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) began an indefinite strike to protest poor working conditions and pay. 
Resident doctors in Nigeria are medical school graduates training and working as specialists, and make up almost half of all working doctors in the country. This is the third time the doctors have gone on strike in the past year. 
This also comes as the country rolls out vaccines, acquired via the COVAX Facility — led by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance — to frontline health workers and the elderly, before the rest of the population.



The state should safeguard the legal rights of doctors and provide them with good working conditions and salaries. COVID-19 is still a great threat to people, and we cannot do without doctors now.