—-Our matters ‘re solved, says NARD
—As Presidency moves to criminalise assault on health workers, agree on salary, promotion timelines

By Johnbosco Agbakwuru

ABUJA —AFTER about three-hour meeting with President Bola Tinubu’s Chief of Staff, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, at the Presidential Villa on Tuesday, the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors, NARD, has announced it will suspend the planned strike.

The meeting which was on the instance of Gbajabiamila had in attendance the Ministers of Labour and Employment, Muhammad Maigari Dingyadi, the coordinating Minister ofHealth and Social Welfare, Ali Pate, the of Finance and Coordinating minister of economy; Taiwo Oyedele the Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation; the Accountant-General of the Federation; and officials in charge of cash management and the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System.

Speaking to journalists after the meeting, the NARD President, Dr Muhammad Suleiman, said their matters have practically been resolved, stressing that they secured firm commitments on nearly every outstanding issue.

“Today, I can tell you, our matters are solved,” Dr. Suleiman said.

He explained that his association and the Federal Government agreed to specific timelines for resolving outstanding salary, promotion and allowance disputes that had pushed the association to the brink of industrial action.

According to him: “This is not the first time the Chief of Staff has intervened in matters relating to resident doctors in this country.

“About six or seven years ago, when he became Speaker, it was the first opportunity he had to intervene, and he has always intervened. Whenever he came into our issues, our matters were solved.

“Timelines have been agreed upon by various agencies of government on salary and promotion areas. We are talking about the meal issue at LUTH, we are talking about a week for implementation. We have agreed on a figure. We have agreed on numbers.”

On the issues of delayed salaries for house officers, junior doctors in their mandatory one-year internship, Suleiman said a standing directive had now been issued.

“We also talked about house officers, so that they don’t have to wait a whole month before they get the previous month’s salaries,” he said.

He added: “In fact, he has given a standing order that before the 10th of every month, salaries of house officers must be paid.”

Also commenting on the Collective Bargaining Agreement between NARD and the federal government, Dr. Suleiman said the Presidency had directly charged the Ministries of Labour and Employment and Health to accelerate its completion, so that whatever terms are agreed can be captured in next year’s budget cycle for implementation.

“The conversations have been very, very robust,” he said.

He further stated that the association had also raised the escalating pattern of violence against health workers, citing 31 doctors and more than 20 other health workers assaulted in the past 10 months alone.

“Today we have agreed. The Ministry of Health is going to release directives to their hospitals to beef up security and create safe spaces.

“The Ministry of Health is going to engage the public in public education for health workers not to be assaulted,” he revealed.

While commending the president’s Chief of Staff on his timely intervention, he said Gbajabiamila will drive legislative reform on the matter.

“The Chief of Staff has taken it upon himself to introduce legislation so that the National Assembly can come in with something that will make assault on health workers an aggravated offence.

“We are very glad with that. We think it will send the right signal that health workers should not be assaulted,” he stated.

On the long-running dispute over unpaid hazard and specialist allowance arrears, Suleiman explained that the roots of the dispute date back roughly seven years, when the government began paying resident doctors only 40 per cent of their accrued allowances rather than the full entitlement.

He said the Tinubu administration corrected the shortfall in February 2026 but, in implementing the correction, did not cover the full seven-year backlog, leaving a 19-month gap dating back to July 2024 still outstanding.

The NARD President however was not forthcoming on whether the association has called off the planned strike after the presidency’s intervention.

He said: “I can’t stand here and tell you I have called off a strike. What I’ll do, I have the utmost confidence that what he (Gbajabiamila) has done today has moved the needle to a very large extent to have solved our matters, and we’ll wait for more.”

He said he would need to report back to NARD’s National Executive Council before any final decision could be communicated.

“I have National Executive Council members. I will have a conversation. I have to report all of this back. We sit down. We take a decision.

“The point is, the person that called us for this conversation has never failed resident doctors. That is what I am emphasising.“

Recall that NARD had recently threatened to embark on a nationwide indefinite strike from August 10 if the Federal Government failed to address outstanding salary arrears, welfare concerns and other longstanding issues affecting its members.