Resident Doctors to Embark on Five-Day Nationwide Strike from Friday

The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has announced plans to commence a five-day nationwide warning strike beginning Friday, September 12, 2025, over unresolved salary and welfare issues.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the association confirmed that the strike would run from 8:00 a.m. on Friday until Tuesday, September 16, 2025. The decision followed extensive deliberations at NARD’s virtual National Executive Council (E-NEC) meeting, which ended in the early hours of Thursday.

General Secretary of NARD’s Federal Capital Territory chapter, Agbor Affiong, said members unanimously agreed to the action, instructing all centres to notify their hospital managements ahead of the strike.

The warning strike comes against the backdrop of ongoing industrial actions by resident doctors in Abuja and Oyo State, and follows the expiration of a 10-day ultimatum earlier issued to the government.

NARD President, Dr. Osundara Zenith, had previously warned that doctors might shut down public hospitals, citing poor working conditions, inadequate remuneration, power outages, and the downgrading of professional certificates as key grievances.

Among the doctors’ demands are immediate payment of the 2025 Medical Residency Training Fund, settlement of arrears from the 25–35 percent review of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS), and clearance of longstanding salary backlogs. Others include payment of the 2024 accoutrement allowance arrears, disbursement of specialist allowances, restoration of recognition for West African postgraduate membership certificates, and issuance of membership certificates by the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria.

The association is also pressing for resolution of welfare challenges in Kaduna State and improved support for resident doctors at LAUTECH Teaching Hospital, Ogbomoso.

If carried out, the strike will disrupt services across operating theatres, emergency units, intensive care wards, specialist clinics, diagnostic imaging, and laboratories nationwide.

Medical experts have cautioned that the action could further strain Nigeria’s fragile health system, already grappling with brain drain, obsolete facilities, and poor welfare conditions for healthcare workers.