The strike embarked upon by members of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) to enforce payment of their salary arrears, amongst other things, began earlier this week.

The Federal Government was represented at yesterday’s meeting by the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu, the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, Chairman of National Wages Commission, Mr. Richard Egbule and the Permanent Secretaries of the Health and Labour ministries while the NARD was represented by its National Executive at the Ministry of Labour office in Abuja.

ThisDay reports:

The striking doctors are demanding the payment of their salary arrears, proper implementation of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) by the federal government, adequate funding of the residency training, among others. The closed door meeting, which commenced at about 6.20p.m., was still going on as at the time of filing this report.

However, there appear to be serious cracks among medical doctors as the strike embarked upon by the National Association of Resident Doctors enters day three Thursday.

A doctor at the National Hospital, Abuja told THISDAY that the strike was uncalled for considering government efforts to address the demands of the resident doctors.

According to the source who spoke to THISDAY on condition of anonymity, “the government was making concerted efforts to meet the demands of NARD, government has shown commitment, because, it has started making payment, as one of the demands of NARD officials. This is strike is therefore uncalled for,” he said. He further explained that just as activities of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) had been polarised by political interests of invisible hands, the strike by NARD was the handiwork of some political parties and politicians to cause crisis in the country nay the nation’s health sector.

He informed THISDAY that “strange forces outside were acting a script that was being played out by NARD members, specifically, on this strike,” the source maintained.

But President of NARD, University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada, Dr. Ifeanyi Umoke, said, the decision of the association to embarked on the strike was genuine as government had continued to approach the demands by NARD in a dilly-dally manner. He said: “After several agreements, government assured us that it will come out with something concrete, but up till this moment, we’ve not seen any concrete efforts.”