NARD suspends strike, gives Federal Government until April 21 to meet demands

Nigeria's resident doctors are back to work for now. 

The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has suspended its indefinite nationwide strike after the federal government issued assurances over the disputed Professional Allowance Table (PAT). 

NARD president Mohammad Usman Suleiman announced following an emergency National Executive Council meeting that members have been directed to resume work at 8 am on Wednesday. 

The association, however, has set April 21 as a hard deadline, warning that a fresh strike will be inevitable if demands remain unmet by then.

The strike, which began at midnight on Tuesday, April 7, was triggered by the federal government's decision to halt implementation of the revised PAT from April 2026. 

The PAT had been a hard-won agreement between NARD and the government following a prolonged industrial action in 2025, covering call duty allowances, shift allowances, rural posting incentives, and non-clinical duty payments. 

Implementation had already been delayed twice, first from January, then pushed to February 2026, before the government's alleged plan to discontinue the process entirely prompted the strike declaration.

Beyond the PAT, NARD's demands include the payment of 19 months' outstanding professional allowance arrears, settlement of salary and promotion arrears across multiple federal and state health institutions, release of the 2026 Medical Residency Training Fund, correction of entry-level salary placements, and implementation of specialist allowances. 

The association has framed these not as extras, but as baseline conditions for a functioning public health system.

This is not the first time the cycle has played out this way. In January 2026, NARD suspended a planned strike following fresh commitments from the federal government and intervention from key health sector stakeholders, only for tensions to resurface months later. 

Before that, Vice President Kashim Shettima personally intervened to halt strike action, contacting NARD leadership and directing the resolution of several outstanding issues while requesting more time on others.

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The pattern is familiar: doctors strike, government promises, doctors stand down, promises go unmet, cycle repeats. 

With the April 21 deadline now in place, the federal government has two weeks to demonstrate that this time is different. 

Nigeria's public hospitals and the millions of patients who depend on them sit by the sidelines observing.

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