The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has commenced an indefinite strike today, Wednesday July 26, over unmet demands.

The president of NARD, Dr. Emeka Orji reached this decision yesterday after its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting in Lagos State.

Dr.Orji said, “We have also been talking about the Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF) for 2023 which was captured in the budget, but up till now has not been released.

“We have also been requesting an upward review of the consolidated medical salary structure. Government is yet to handle the matter the way they are supposed to handle it. This time around, we are not calling any percentage again; what we are asking for is full salary restoration.

“We said before that this salary structure we are using was approved in 2009 and implemented in 2014.

“What we are saying is restore us back to the value of the salary as of 2014 because we know that inflation, exchange rate increment and fuel price has eroded the value.

Initially, before the removal of the subsidy, we said 200 per cent. With the removal of subsidy and the fuel price, we have done the math again, which will be in the neighbourhood of more than 600 per cent as the increment required to take us back to the value of that salary in 2014.

We have always said that the circular for one-for-one replacement can be released tomorrow if the government wants to release it because it is just a circular. What is getting our members angry is that they are saying that they want to form another Committee on this again.

“If they can release the circular tomorrow, pay MRTF, then, they can start negotiations with timelines on other demands like upward review of salaries and other demands we have made. If they do this, it will be easier to present it to our members to now consider giving more time for the other issues to be sorted out,” the association added.