Resident doctors suspend strike, resume duty immediately 

By : Guardian Nigeria

Date: 1 December 2025 5:25am WAT

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Almost one month after, the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has suspended the indefinite strike embarked upon by its members over non-payment of arrears of allowances and benefits and other issues affecting their welfare.

The strike, which began on November 1, 2025, was suspended after deliberations during an Extraordinary National Executive Council meeting of the association held on Saturday.

The President of the association, Dr Mohamed Suleiman, told The Guardian that the decision to suspend the strike was reached after an agreement with the government on some of the demands, which culminated in the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two parties.

He explained that the association’s National Executive Council, after reviewing the MoU and the timeline, felt it was acceptable and agreed that the best course of action is to suspend the strike and give at least four weeks to ensure that some of those things are implemented.

He said: “We reached an agreement and also signed an MoU. We agreed on some of the things. We wanted to have some time for them to be implemented. The National Executive Council reviewed the MoU, looked at the timelines, and felt it was acceptable. They then decided that the best course of action for the NEC is to suspend the strike and give at least four weeks to see that some of those things are implemented.”

Suleiman revealed that the suspension of the strike is with immediate effect, adding that all resident doctors are expected to resume at their duty posts immediately.

During the strike, which lasted for 29 days, the resident doctors had tabled 19 legitimate demands before the government, describing them as the minimum requirements for a sustainable healthcare system and for restoring dignity to medical practice in Nigeria.

Some of the issues include non-payment of the outstanding 25 per cent and 35 per cent upward review arrears of CONMESS, which should have been fully settled by the end of August 2025, alongside other outstanding salary arrears, non-payment of promotion arrears owed to medical officers in various federal tertiary health institutions across the country, failure of the Federal Government to pay the arrears of the 2024 accoutrement allowance, despite repeated assurances by the Federal Ministry of Health and unjust dismissal of five resident doctors from the Federal Teaching Hospital, Lokoja, an action that is particularly worrisome amid widespread burnout and the ongoing brain drain (“JAPA” syndrome), among others.

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