The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Abbas Tajudeen, PhD, convened a meeting with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to address the strike initiated by the National Association of Resident Doctors of Nigeria (NARD).
Prior to this meeting, Speaker Abbas had already met with the national leadership of NARD on Monday and earnestly appealed to them to reconsider their planned strike action. During that meeting, he requested the resident doctors to grant the House leadership a two-week period to address the concerns they had raised. Moreover, he assured them that he would personally meet with President Tinubu within 24 hours to discuss the matter. To tackle the issue effectively, an ad hoc committee chaired by Prof. Julius Ihonvbere, the Leader of the House, was constituted.
True to his word, Speaker Abbas met with President Tinubu on Tuesday night and provided a comprehensive update on the outcome of his meeting with the NARD leadership. He made a heartfelt plea to the President, urging him to intervene and address the issues raised by the resident doctors.
Despite the Speaker’s efforts, NARD went ahead with their indefinite strike on Tuesday evening. In response, Speaker Abbas promptly directed the ad hoc committee to engage with all relevant stakeholders and work towards finding a swift resolution to the matter.
The ad hoc committee, which includes Hon. Tanko Sununu (APC, Kebbi), the immediate past Chairman of the 9th House Committee on Healthcare Services as the deputy chairman, and all medical practitioners in the House, is now actively working to address the concerns raised by the resident doctors and find a viable solution.
