Resident doctors in northern Nigeria have protested the sacking of a staff members at the Federal Teaching Hospital, FTH, calling for their reinstatement back to work.
The agitators, condemned the dismissal of the workers citing disregard to labour laws by the hospital, and calling for a better welfare of medical practitioners.
The remosntrating group, North Central Caucas of the Association of Resident Doctors, ARD, stated that the FTH in Lokoja, submitted that the doctors’ dismissal over allegations of unauthorized protest and union activities was unjust and a trample to their labour rights.
The caucus leader, Fanen Dogoh, at a news conference in Abuja yesterday, said that the FTH was aware that several committees had been constituted to review the matter, all of which reportedly recommended the reinstatement of the affected doctors.
Dogoh added that despite recommendations and a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the Federal Government and the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) during their last meeting, the government failed to act.
He also bemoaned the accrued owed allowances and arrears on the resident doctors across several federal institutions, citing the Federal Teaching Hospital, Makurdi, Benue State, reportedly owing 18 month arrears and other allowances, as well as their counterparts in Ilorin, Kwara State.
“We urge the Federal Government to urgently address the issues raised during the engagement with NARD, as failure to do so could lead to a total shutdown of resident doctors services nationwide,’ Dogoh said.
“The strike would commence on Monday, January 12, if the government failed to honour the MoU,” he added.
“Government must look into these issues and resolve them. These are some of the fundamental reasons why we are planning a strike. Another critical issue is payment at the entry point of doctors. Government must also respect the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), which has remained stalled and requires urgent resumption,” the agitator stated.
“Some outstanding allowances and arrears had not been captured in the 2026 budget and d this is as a clear sign of neglect,” he concluded.
Also speaking, the Vice President II of NARD, Dr Kwarshak Kelvin, called on the Federal Government to urgently address other welfare concerns of resident doctors.
Kelvin urged the minister of health and social welfare to transmit promotion arrears for doctors in federal hospitals to the appropriate authorities.
“The Minister of Health was expected to transmit promotion letters to the Budget Office and the Ministry of Finance for payment or inclusion in the budget, unfortunately, that has not been done,” he said.
“The implementation was supposed to begin in January 2026. That means we are already looking at about 18 months of arrears. However, the government has not written to the Budget Office for this to be captured in the 2026 budget, nor has implementation commenced. This effectively means the process has been halted.”
