Nigerian Resident Doctors Suspend Strike After FG Concedes on Allowances, Clears Arrears

Strike Suspended After Emergency NEC Meeting

Nigerian resident doctors will not be going on strike — at least not yet. The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) announced on Saturday that it has suspended its planned indefinite nationwide strike action following fresh commitments from the Federal Government to address key welfare concerns that had been festering for months.

The decision came out of an emergency virtual meeting of the association’s National Executive Council (NEC) held on April 25, 2026, where members assessed recent high-level government interventions. NARD had been threatening to down tools over the reversal of the reviewed Professional Allowance Table (PAT) and a string of unresolved welfare issues including unpaid promotion arrears and salary backlogs.

What FG Agreed To

The concessions that moved NARD’s NEC are significant. The government has reversed its earlier rollback of the reviewed PAT, with implementation now expected to reflect in April salaries and all subsequent payments. The Budget Office has also committed to clearing a backlog of 19 months’ worth of professional allowance arrears — a figure that speaks to how long these grievances have been left unaddressed. Additionally, initial approval has been granted for the 2026 Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF), with a commitment to ensure its full disbursement.

NARD credited the interventions of President Bola Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima, ministers, and lawmakers in helping to avert the strike.

Warning Still on the Table

The suspension is not unconditional. NARD has set its May Ordinary General Meeting in Kano as a compliance review checkpoint, warning that failure to implement the agreed commitments could trigger fresh action. The association also flagged the unresolved issue of house officers’ unpaid salaries, calling for an urgent stakeholders’ meeting to settle it definitively.

Nigeria’s public healthcare system has repeatedly been brought to the brink by disputes between resident doctors and the government — a pattern that reflects broader structural underfunding of the sector. For now, hospitals can breathe again.

Sources: Vanguard, BusinessDay