The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has issued a final 10-day ultimatum to the Federal Government and other relevant agencies to meet its outstanding welfare demands, warning that members will commence a nationwide strike if their conditions are not met by the deadline. The association’s Extraordinary National Executive Council (E-NEC), which met virtually on Sunday, adopted the position in a communiqué signed by NARD President Dr. Tope Osundara, General Secretary Dr. Oluwasola Odunbaku, and Publicity and Social Secretary Dr. Omoha Amobi.
NARD reminded stakeholders that it had already issued a three-week ultimatum in July and, in the interest of industrial harmony, extended that period by a further three weeks to allow the National Officers’ Committee to negotiate with government.
According to the communiqué, the government has failed to honour promises made during those engagements: many resident doctors remain unpaid for the 2025 Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF); five months’ arrears tied to the 25%/35% Consolidated Medical Salary Structure review (CONMESS) are outstanding; the 2024 accoutrement allowance has not been paid; and other long-standing salary arrears remain unsettled.
The E-NEC also protested the downgrading and non-issuance of postgraduate membership certificates by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) and the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria (NPMCN), and condemned state governments – notably Kaduna and Oyo – for failing to honour specific welfare commitments to their doctors.
While commending governors who have honoured and paid the 2025 MRTF, NARD demanded immediate payment of all outstanding entitlements, restoration of proper recognition for postgraduate memberships, and swift resolution of welfare disputes in Kaduna and Oyo. The association warned that if its demands are not addressed by Wednesday, 10 September 2025, it will have no option but to order a nationwide strike.
Contextualising this ultimatum requires a look back at several years of interrupted services, periodic ultimatums, and stoppages by junior and senior doctors across Nigeria. Since the COVID-19 era the relationship between successive federal administrations and doctors’ unions has been volatile: resident doctors have repeatedly staged strikes over unpaid salaries, unpaid hazard benefits and training funds, delays in payment of the Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF), and perceived disrespect to the professional pathways and certificates that underpin specialist training.
Those tensions boiled into internationally reported strikes in 2021 when NARD initiated an indefinite strike over unpaid salary arrears and unresolved insurance benefits, an action that drew widespread media attention and judicial intervention as talks and court orders alternated with industrial action.
The 2021 stoppage, which began in early August of that year, drew urgent appeals from religious and civic leaders and a court order that temporarily suspended the action, illustrating how strikes by resident doctors have repeatedly triggered national anxiety given their impact on teaching hospitals and specialist services.
The pattern continued in subsequent years. In 2023, frontline public hospital doctors staged an indefinite strike that coincided with severe economic adjustments following national policy changes (including the ending of fuel subsidies), and the resulting protests and walkouts lasted for several weeks before lawmakers brokered talks that led to a suspension of the strike.
That 2023 walkout was explicitly tied to pay grievances exacerbated by broader macroeconomic shocks -inflation and higher living costs – which pushed doctors to demand salary adjustments and clearer commitments on allowances. The strike disrupted clinical services nationally and forced lawmakers and the executive to engage directly with doctors’ leadership to avert further escalation.
Beyond the headline-grabbing national strikes, the last half-decade has seen frequent localised stoppages and threats: state-level hostilities where doctors in teaching and specialist hospitals have refused work over unpaid local allowances, unpaid entitlements, or breakdowns in state-level memoranda of understanding.
For example, NARD’s recent communiqué names Kaduna and Oyo states as loci of unresolved disputes: Kaduna allegedly failed to honour commitments to members attached to ARD Kaduna and Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital despite signed agreements, while Oyo has faced an indefinite strike at LAUTECH Teaching Hospital in Ogbomosho stemming from unresolved demands and alleged neglect.
These state-level fractures reveal that the problem is not confined to the federal payroll alone but spreads across the federal-state fiscal architecture that funds health workers.