The Federal Government has appealed to the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) to call off its industrial action.

NARD embarked on an indefinite strike on July 26, following expiration of a two-week ultimatum it issued to the Federal Government.

The doctors are demanding implementation of the one-for-one replacement policy for healthcare workers; the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria to discontinue the downgrading of the membership certificate issued by the West African Postgraduate Medical and Surgical Colleges; the immediate payment of all salary arrears; the implementation of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure; a new hazard allowance; and the domestication of the Medical Residency Training Act; among others.

Speaking at a Press Conference in Abuja, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Kachollom Daju, begged the doctors to consider the lives of many Nigerians that are at stake and end the strike.

Daju assured that the new government and the relevant agencies were working round the clock to ensure that the contentious issues were addressed and the doctors’ demands met.

She said: “We are using this medium to currently appeal to NARD that please, Nigerians are dying in troops. That is the truth, the health sector is a very important sector. Not that other sectors are not important, they are all important but we all know what medical doctors are to us. If you are ill today and you cannot go to a hospital, what happens?

“People are dying, people cannot care for themselves. So, I am begging them and I am lending my voice to the voice of all members of the government who have appealed to them, to please call off their strike and go back to work.”

“I know that your parent ministry alongside other government agencies are working round the clock to ensure that this matter is sorted out.”

Speaking on what the government was doing to address the problem, Daju said: “We have had various levels of discussions with them. We have gone to the highest level as it is and discussed it with them. If you have gone to the highest level where they have told you “give us some time, that we are looking into your issues and into your matters”, we expected with all sense of responsibility that NARD would see reasons with the government.

“I know that maybe between May 19th and now, they assumed that what they requested would be given immediately but, some of the issues have been dealt with by the federal government.

“But, since this new administration came into office, concerted efforts have been made by the federal government, even the National Assembly had met with them on this same matter.

“There are two main contending issues. Payment of the 2023 medical Residency Training Fund and One-on-one placement of exited doctors.

The Perm Sec explained that on the immediate payment of 2023 Medical Residency Training Fund, the government appealed to the doctors to kindly await when ministers are in place because permanent Secretaries have a threshold and what the government is expected to pay is far and above the threshold of the permanent Secretaries.

“Very soon, we are sure that ministers are going to be in place and we told them that they should just tally for a while. Government is not resting on its oars. We understand the plight of where you are coming from.

“We pleaded with them to call off their strike. To be honest the Federal Ministry of Health, their parent ministry, actually goes to the President on the issues in the health sector for him to intervene and they were equally informed about this.

On efforts made to resolve the issue of replacement of exited doctors, Daju further explained that: “The office of the head of civil service is attending to that. A committee was set up for that and they were equally informed that a committee had been instituted and the federal ministry of labour is a member of the committee alongside the Federal ministry of health and other relevant government agencies but we need to determine and establish who exactly have exited because we are all guided as civil servants by the public service rules.

She noted that “There is a difference between exit from an office and study leave. There is leave of absence. There are different kinds of leave. So, we need to be sure, for you to demand from the federal government that you want one-on-one replacement immediately, you know how all these are run.

“We have pleaded again that just give us a little more time that when recommendations have been made by the committee we will bring them forth and act but to no avail.