The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has announced that it will embark on an indefinite nationwide strike beginning November 1, 2025, following the expiration of a 30-day ultimatum earlier issued to the Federal Government over unresolved welfare and policy demands.

NARD President, Dr. Mohammad Suleiman, who disclosed this in a statement on Sunday, said the decision was reached after a five-hour emergency meeting of the association’s National Executive Council (NEC) held on Saturday.

According to him, the NEC had resolved to declare a “total, comprehensive, and indefinite” industrial action, having exhausted all avenues of dialogue without a satisfactory response from the government.

Suleiman stated that the strike directive would take effect from 11:59pm on October 31, 2025, and that the National Officers Committee (NOC) had been mandated to ensure full compliance across all teaching hospitals, federal medical centres, and specialist facilities in the country.

He added that centre presidents and general secretaries had been instructed to convene emergency congress meetings to brief members and prepare for the shutdown.

“NEC has marshalled out minimum demands, strike monitoring directives, and ‘no work, no pay/no pay, no work’ resolutions needed for a successful execution of this action,” he said, emphasising that the association would resist any attempt by “government or non-government actors” to undermine the rights of its members.

Suleiman also urged resident doctors to use the days leading up to the strike to hand over patients, sensitise the public, and engage community and religious leaders on the reasons behind the action.

The impending strike, if implemented, is expected to paralyse clinical services nationwide, as resident doctors make up the majority of medical personnel handling emergency, outpatient, and specialist care in public hospitals. Their absence could worsen the country’s already strained healthcare system, where patients often rely heavily on government hospitals due to high private-sector costs and limited insurance coverage.

The resident doctors’ grievances stem from long-standing disputes over welfare, salary arrears, promotion delays, and the implementation of revised remuneration structures. On September 26, NARD had given the Federal Government a one-month ultimatum to address these issues, warning that failure to do so would leave them with no choice but to withdraw their services.

Among the unresolved issues are the non-payment of arrears arising from the 25 and 35 percent upward review of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS), non-payment of promotion arrears to medical officers, and the dismissal of five resident doctors from the Federal Teaching Hospital, Lokoja.

The association also cited excessive and unregulated work hours, the failure of the government to pay the 2024 accoutrement allowance despite repeated assurances, and bureaucratic bottlenecks in upgrading resident doctors’ ranks after postgraduate examinations, which have led to unpaid arrears and salary distortions.

Additionally, NARD decried the exclusion of resident doctors from specialist allowances, as well as the exclusion of medical and dental house officers from the civil service scheme, a policy it described as unjust and demoralising.

The doctors further expressed outrage over the recent downgrading of newly employed resident doctors from CONMESS 3 Step 3 to CONMESS 2 Step 2, a move that effectively slashed their earnings and left many with months of unpaid salaries.

The union argues that such policies reflect a broader pattern of neglect that continues to undermine morale in the health sector, drive medical brain drain, and compromise patient care.