The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has outlined conditions that must be met by the Federal Government before its ongoing strike can be suspended.

Speaking on Channel?s Television?s breakfast programme, The Morning Brief on Thursday, NARD President, Mohammed Suleiman, insisted that only full implementation of previously agreed items in its Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) would move discussions forward.

?The federal government must reinstate the ?Lokoja 5,? release the professional allowance table for implementation, pay promotion arrears, clear outstanding salary arrears, ensure that all items agreed on during conciliation are reflected exactly in the MoU, pay the specialist allowance to CONMESS 5 officers, and resolve the membership certificate issue.?

The President explained that the Association has 19 demands, stating that three conciliation meetings have already been held with the federal government.

According to him, both parties agreed on timelines for resolving all 19 items, stressing that ?there is nothing new on the table,? as the issues have lingered for years and previous agreements have repeatedly been violated.

?We have 19 demands and of these 19 demands we have sat down with the team from the federal government in a conciliation we have had 3 conciliation meeteings and in these conciliations we have agreed on timelines of all the 19 demands there is nothing new to the table this are things that have lingered for years and previous agreements on this matters have been flouted by the federal government.?

Dr. Suleiman said Nard discussed promotion arrears owed to federal government medical officers who were promoted as far back as 2018; however, they have not received payment.

He noted that both sides agreed that the arrears would be compiled by Friday and forwarded to the Minister of Finance, who told the association, ?I can?t pay immediately, but I can create a payment plan.? He noted that as of Thursday, Nard does not know whether the compilation has even been completed.

?We discussed the promotion arrears for medical officers. These are doctors who work for the federal government, who have been promoted from 2018 to date, with no promotion arrears.

?We agreed that these promotion arrears are going to be calculated, that they were going to be compiled as at Friday last week, and forwarded to the minister of finance, who, in one of the conciliations, promised us he can?t pay immediately but that he can create a payment plan. We gave the concession that was agreed to happen as of Friday. Today is Thursday, but we don?t even know if the compilation has been completed, not to mention being sent to the Ministry of Finance for their own input for us to complete that.?

On salary arrears, he said some doctors are owed between three and 20 months across different institutions. He confirmed that compilation of the arrears was completed and verified by Friday, but has not been forwarded to the Ministry of Finance or the Budget Office for the next phase of processing, contrary to the agreement and assurances given by Finance Minister Wale Edun.

?The issues of the salary arrears, as there are doctors who have between 3 ? 20 months of salary arrears in different institutions. We also agreed that this compilation will be completed on Friday which has been done we have verified that but that has not fowarded to the ministry of finance and the budget office for them to work on the second part of the agreement as told to us by the Minister of Finance, Chief Wale Edun, who was very willing to give us a payment plan that has not been done.?

Dr. Suleiman described the professional allowance table issue as ?an injustice of over seven years,? noting that since 2014, the rule has been that when basic salaries are reviewed, allowances should be reviewed as well.

He said doctors currently receive only ?45 to maybe 60 per cent? of their allowances and added that although calculations and tables have been completed and all parties agreed that they should be released and implemented, delays continue.

?The professional allowance table ? this is an injustice of over seven years, we agreed with the federal government. Since 2014, when the basic salary was reviewed. As I am talking to you now, doctors only get about 45 to maybe 60 per cent of their allowances. The last salary that was paid, everybody agreed that the calculations had been done. The tables have been put up, release them, implement them, then you begin to hear a lot of stories.?

He said Nard had convened a national executive council meeting in anticipation of the release of the tables and other agreed items, only for the federal government to later insist that the documents would be ready ?after another two weeks.

?We even went ahead to call a national executive council meeting in view of the release of some of these tables and some of these agreements, only to come together to sign an MoU that would capture all of this, and we were told it could only come after another two weeks. So what is the plan? We signed the MoU. We suspended the strike, and in two weeks, we began to hear another story.?

He argued that signing an MOU under such conditions made no sense, as the government could still change the narrative if the Association suspended the strike. (Channels TV)

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