200% Salary Increase – Resident Doctors Table Fresh Demands From Tinubu

The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has demanded a 200 percent increase in the salary of its members as well as other incentives.

This is as the doctors also demanded the declaration of a state of emergency in the health sector by President Bola Tinubu so as to curb the brain drain and the push by doctors to seek greener pastures abroad.

Speaking in a statement by its President, Dr. Emeka Orji, NARD urged the Tinubu government to approve their demands as contained in the letter it sent to the Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Health on July 7, 2022, but promised to give the government a little more time to meet their demands.

The medical doctors also decried the decision of the federal government to suddenly remove fuel subsidy which has led to the subsequent increase in the general cost of living and inflation rate.

The doctors made their mind known in a statement they issued after their union’s ordinary general meeting in Lagos which reads: “We call on the President, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to, as a matter of urgency, declare a state of emergency in the Nigerian health sector as the era of paying lip service to the monster called ‘brain drain’ should be over.

“We urge the government to set up a high-powered panel to review and harmonise the reports from the former President Obasanjo Health Agenda for Nigeria Committee and the former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo-led Health Sector Reform Committee in order to generate a plan of action in the Health sector for the President Tinubu-led administration.

“We insist on the demand for at least 200 per cent increment in the CONMESS salary structure and the associated allowances, as contained in our letter to the government, dated July 7, 2022. We have resolved to give the new government some time to quickly resolve this issue which is at the root of the current spate of massive brain drain in the sector.”

NARD also made demands from the Kwara, Ogun, Rivers,Abia amd Oyo state governments as well as the FCT on the state of the heaalth sector in their respective doamins.

“We call on Governors Adedapo Abiodun of Ogun State, Alex Otti of Abia State, Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State, Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, AbdulRahman AbdulRasaq of Kwara State and the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) to urgently look into the situation in the Health sector in their states since these are capable of breaking down the industrial peace in their states.

“We call on the management of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) and the Lagos State Governor to discontinue the demand for bench fees as this contravenes the decision of the National Council on Establishment to abolish the fees.

“We call on the West African Colleges of Surgeons and Physicians to immediately discontinue the practice of charging our members using parallel market exchange rates.

“We call on the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria to stop the downgrading of the membership certificate as this is not the practice in sister African countries that share the same certificate,” the statement added.