Atiku reacts as resident doctors announce plan to embark on indefinite strike

A former vice president of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar has condemned the incessant strike actions by doctors under the Nigerian Resident Doctors Association (NARD).

In a statement issued on Sunday, Atiku expressed concerns that doctors in Nigeria have to beg the Federal Government to fulfil its own side of the bargain with NARD.

According to Atiku, it would be a betrayal for the Federal Government to sign a deal on the Professional Allowance Table with the association and abandon it.

“The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors should not have to beg for what has already been agreed upon. The Federal Government signed a deal on the Professional Allowance Table, and now it wants to abandon it. This is not governance; it is betrayal.

“Our resident doctors are the last line of defence in hospitals that are already collapsing. They work gruelling hours, in impossible conditions, for pay that insults their sacrifice. And now, the government seeks to take away the little that was promised?” Atiku queried.

He further warned the current administration led by President Bola Tinubu to show committment by fulfilling its own part of the bargain with the resident doctor.

“The Tinubu administration must demonstrate commitment to the issues: 19 months of unpaid Professional Allowance arrears; promotion arrears gathering dust; a Medical Residency Training Fund stuck in bureaucratic limbo; and a government that treats its doctors as an afterthought and remains unconcerned as they flee the country in droves.

“Every doctor Nigeria loses to the UK, Canada, or Saudi Arabia is a failure of leadership, not a failure of patriotism. You cannot ask people to serve a nation that refuses to honour its own word.

“I stand with NARD. Pay what you owe. Honour what you signed. Or explain to 200 million Nigerians why their hospitals will go dark on Tuesday,” Atiku added.