Preventing yet another resident doctors’ strike

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Nigeria must not sleepwalk into another strike by resident doctors. At its 46th Annual General Meeting in Calabar, the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) gave the Federal Government 14 days to resolve outstanding agreements or face industrial action. Its complaints are familiar: remuneration that no longer reflects economic realities, delayed career progression and professional allowances, unpaid entitlements to house officers, excessive workload caused by manpower shortages, poor infrastructure and equipment, assaults on health workers and the continuing migration of doctors. NARD also urged stronger health-sector funding.

This is not an isolated quarrel. Nigeria’s public health system has been trapped for decades in a cycle of agreement, delay, ultimatum, strike and renewed negotiation. Available records show repeated NARD strike actions almost every year. These include numerous warning strikes; the 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017 nationwide actions; two in 2020 and 2021; and the 2023 strike. More recent disputes have continued in 2025 and 2026. The pattern itself is evidence of a structural problem, not a succession of isolated misunderstandings.

The working conditions are indefensible. Doctors and other health professionals contend with inadequate staffing, long hours, poor equipment, unreliable infrastructure, insecurity, delayed payments and weak professional progression. A physician survey identified poor staff welfare, salary, leadership and management, and poor hospital infrastructure among major strike drivers. Strikes, in turn, disrupt treatment and training and have been associated with increased morbidity and mortality and declining confidence in hospitals.

The most damaging consequence is brain drain. The Health Minister, Prof Mohammed Patel, said in 2024 that Nigeria had lost about 15,000–16,000 doctors to migration in five years. NARD subsequently reported that 18,949 doctors left in over two decades, including 3,974 in 2024 alone. Resident doctors reportedly fell from about 15,000 members in 2014 to roughly 8,000 in 2025. Every departure increases the burden on those who remain and strengthens the vicious cycle of exhaustion, frustration and further emigration.

Repeatedly losing caregivers cannot build a resilient national healthcare system. Government must therefore use this 14-day window for action, not another round of empty promises. It should publish a time-bound implementation matrix for every outstanding agreement, clear verified arrears, fund residency training, recruit personnel, improve hospitals, protect workers from violence and establish a credible mechanism for resolving disputes before they become strikes. Health is wealth. Budgetary priorities must reflect that truth. Because top government officials with corrupt access to the public till can afford private and overseas treatment, they are unconcerned about strike threats by these health professionals who care for ordinary Nigerians. Common people deserve a system that works for them too. The neglect of health and education is socially costly and unacceptable. The Federal Government must change its attitude, invest adequately in the social sector and prevent strikes.