- Say: ‘No-work, no-pay’ familiar refrain
The Nigeria Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has declared that its January 12 planned strike remains on course despite the court order restraining it from embarking on industrial action.
The association emphasized that it is not intimidated by any court injunction, insisting that its members are determined to embark on the strike as scheduled, except the Federal government demonstrates genuine and practical steps toward meeting the doctors’ demands
Speaking on a national television evening magazine programme on Friday, the NARD President, Dr. Mohammad Suleiman said resident doctors had anticipated the government’s ‘no-work no-pay’ invocation and court action long before the injunction was issued.
“Indeed I can tell you my members are not perturbed. My members are not shaken at all. We actually envisaged this.
“Even when we went on the NARD strike, total independence and comprehensive 1.0 at the latter part of last year, we anticipated ‘no-work, no pay’, or even a court injunction. These things were factored into the decision to embark on this action,” he pointed out.
He dismissed the injunction as neither new nor unexpected, citing past confrontations between resident doctors and previous administrations.
“I can tell you for free that in 2014 the previous government sparked the entirety of resident doctors in Nigeria. This is not new or strange in Nigeria,” he noted.
Suleiman said the resolve of resident doctors remained firm despite threats of sanctions adding that the issues at stake justified the action
“They should go ahead and throw the no-work-no-pay. They are throwing court injunctions, we are looking at it, probably even mass sacking of doctors will follow, but the resolve of my members is not shaking at all,” Suleiman affirmed.
However, the NARD president said the association is not closed to dialogue and would be willing to reconsider its position if the government shows concrete evidence of good faith.
“We have nothing but respect for the Honourable Coordinating Minister for Health Professor Mohammed Pate and the Honourable Minister of State for Health Adekunle Salako These are senior colleagues in the profession.
“But let us dwell on the issues. We suspended our action based on the Memorandum of Understanding we signed. After that, we wrote a reminder letter in the middle of December. We made visits to several agencies of government, but nothing moved,” he noted regrettably.
He explained that the association only began hearing of government action after it announced the resumption of the strike raising concerns about the sincerity of the response.
“After we declared that we are resuming the strike we started hearing in newspapers and on social media that movements were being made. Up until now, a lot of things are still in the process and in the pipeline,” he added.
According to him, NARD has 16 outstanding demands, and the National Executive Council NEC insists they must be resolved conclusively, noting: “What the NEC is saying is take these issues to finality. There are 16 items on that table and these issues must be resolved.
Responding to government claims that seven of the demands had been met including payment of arrears Suleiman disputed the figures, Suleiman disagreed, explaining: “We still have over 2000 almost 3000 of our members that are yet to be paid the 25 to 35 percent arrears.
These arrears were said to be put inside the service-wide vote in 2023; they were not paid. In 2024, they were put there, they were not paid, in 2025 they were put there again,” he noted, stressing that resident doctors were tired of waiting for special presidential interventions to access payments
“The demand is to capture it in the budget; it is no retreat, no surrender,” he added.
Suleiman criticised the timing of the court injunction and the no-work-no-pay threats describing them as hostile tactics while negotiations were ongoing.
“When we are discussing and we are at the negotiating table, we should do it in good faith. By the time you begin to bring out armouries and arms like this, you do not want to negotiate,” he noted
Addressing concerns about the impact of the strike on patients Suleiman said the suffering of doctors and the health system could no longer be ignored
“Are we ignoring the suffering that doctors are going through in this country? Are we ignoring the suffering patients go through because doctors are exhausted, frustrated and tired?” he asked.
The NARD President, however, disclosed that talks with the government were still ongoing and expressed cautious optimism that tangible actions could lead to a shift in NARD’s position
“Right now we are in conversations with the federal government team I would hope that from tonight to Sunday a lot of things will be done in the proper way
“If these conversations lead to palpable things on the ground the NEC will favourably look at it. Once those gains drop I can tell you NEC will review its position,” he assured.
Suleiman also dismissed allegations that NARD is acting on behalf of political interests.
“I am a clinician I am a doctor, I have never been involved in politics. We are resident doctors and we only serve Nigerian patients,” he emphasized.