From Edwin Olofu, Kano
The National Association of Resident Doctors of Nigeria (NARD), has said that it is embarking on three-day warning strike, starting from today, Monday.
This was disclosed in a press conference at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH), yesterday, by the president of the association, Dr. Jibril Abdullahi.
Abdullahi listed among other reasons for the industrial action, the non-payment of eight months’ salary of their colleagues from the Federal Medical Centre, Owerri. “Moreover, no explanation was given for this aberration” he disclosed in annoyance.
He expressed dissatisfaction over what he described as a non-challant attitude of the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu over two signed agreements between them and the government.
Abdullahi revealed that “All our agreements of 2013 and 2014 are not seeing the light of the day. And it is the fault of the Honourable Minister, to our dismay.
“The Ministry of Health is not committed to honour our agreements. That is why we are going on three days’ warning strike to press for our genuine demands. While on strike, we have accepted the excuse from some of our local chapters that have some peculiarities of insecurity, that they can work on emergency situations” he further clarified.
The president said they urge the federal government to commence the implementation of the circular signed on 3rd January, 2014, in order to obviate the difficulty in payment of arrears once they accumulated due to the delayed implementation.
“These issues clearly show the lack of commitment towards the resolution of the current impasse by the Federal Ministry of Health” he complained bitterly.
He, therefore, concluded that after exhaustive deliberations with local chapters and other stakeholders, the association rejects what the government offered regarding such issues. The warning strike, he added, should start from Monday June 2, 2014 by 8 a.m. to Thursday, June 5, 2014 by 8 a.m.
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