Naijafavourite
Nigeria’s president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has asked for more time to address the grievances of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) and other labor unions. The NARD recently went on strike demanding that the government meets their long-standing demands. The government is attempting to resolve the situation, with the House of Representatives meeting with the NARD leadership. President Tinubu explained that he is new in office and needs time to evaluate the issues raised by the workers. He advised the unions to channel their issues to the Chief of Staff for further consideration. Another meeting is scheduled to discuss the way forward.
Nigeria’s president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has appealed to Labour Unions including the National Association of Resident Doctors, NARD, to give him more time to address their grievances.
President Tinubu’s plea is coming less than twenty-four (24) hours after the National Association of Resident Doctors embarked on an indefinite industrial action following the federal government’s refusal to meet its demands.
NARD holds that the government must meet all its demands, which have been kept pending for long, before it would suspend the action.
Consequent upon the resident Doctors’ declaration of a strike action on Wednesday morning, Naijafavourite learns that the federal government is already attempting measures to immediately remedy the situation, one of which was a meeting held earlier between the leadership of the House of Representatives and some members of the striking doctors’ professional body, NARD.
Such meetings aim to provide a solution to the existing problems. Could this have been one of them?
Led by the honorable speaker, Tajudeen Abas, the leadership of the House, after the meeting, returned to the presidential villa to brief President Tinubu on the outcome of their engagement with the union.
It was after their meeting with the president that the speaker disclosed to newsmen at the presidential villa that the delay was due to the fact that the Federal Government was yet to roll out palliatives on the effect of subsidy removal of petrol because it doesn’t want to make mistakes.
Abas also explained that the president said because he was new in office, he would need time to evaluate all the issues that are being raised by workers because he is yet to be briefed.
“What he said is that he’s just coming on board. We should ask them and beg them to please give him a little more time.
“The things that they mentioned, he is completely unaware of them; he is yet to be briefed about all those issues.
“But from what he heard from me, he also advised that we should channel those issues to the Chief of Staff to look at one after the other.
“I believe in the coming days, some concerted actions will be taken,” Abas said.
Tinubu was sworn in as Nigeria’s president on June 12, 2023, and has since then spent less than three months in office.
But NARD, amongst other trade unions, associations, and professional bodies including ASUU, is one of the few agitators who expects the government to swiftly act on their plea as they say they have kept calm for too long and their members are disturbing – according to NARD president, Emeka Orji.
Speaking on the House of Representatives’ efforts towards finding a solution to the problem, Abas said:
“Sequel to the meeting we had with them, there were series of conditions that they gave, that we felt we need to share with the President,”
Recall that the federal government had pledged the sum of 800 million dollars sourced from the World Bank to help cushion the effects of the high cost of living occasioned by the recent removal of subsidy by the president.
Meanwhile, Abass would be meeting with the resident Doctors again on Thursday to discuss the way forward.
