By; AMOS TAUNA, Kaduna
The federal government and striking doctors have reached an agreement on the ongoing industrial action.
The agreement followed a meeting held by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, the leadership of Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) and the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), that resulted to the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding.
The meeting started on Friday evening and ended on Saturday, which had in attendance, the President of NMA, Dr Uche Ojinmah, and his counterpart from NARD, Dr Emeka Orji, among other government officials.
The spokesman of the Ministry, Olajide Oshundun, while giving an update of what happened told journalists that the parties; federal government, Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) and National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) had reached an agreement in order to halt the five-day nationwide warning strike of resident doctors.
According to him, “All the eight issues raised by the striking resident doctors have been addressed, the fund for the payment of the 2023 Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF) has been captured in the 2023 Appropriation and the payment would commence when the operation of the 2023 Budget begins.”
He further explained that the federal government advised striking resident doctors in the the country to embrace more persuasion and social dialogue at the state levels in order to have their issues resolved order than embarking on strike.
The meeting observed that the states cannot be compelled to domesticate the Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF) and must not pay the same amount being paid by the federal government.
