THE crisis in Nigeria’s health sector deepened on Sunday as the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) dismissed the Federal Government’s claim that it is releasing N11.9 billion for payment of outstanding arrears and allowances owed to health workers.
News Point Nigeria reports that the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare had on Saturday stated that the funds would be disbursed within 72 hours to address welfare concerns and restore industrial harmony following the nationwide strike by resident doctors across 91 federal and state tertiary hospitals.
But speaking with this newspaper, NARD President, Dr. Muhammad Suleiman, said the figure announced by the government was misleading, insisting that only about N500 million of the stated amount would benefit resident doctors directly.
Suleiman accused the ministry of deliberately generalising payments to give a false impression that doctors’ demands had been met.
“It’s only N6bn that was agreed to be released in 72 hours, not N11.9bn. Out of that, only about N500m is coming to resident doctors,” he said.
According to Suleiman, the arrears in question are not new interventions, but accumulated entitlements owed for over two years.
He disclosed that: The 25–35 per cent arrears were meant for all health workers
The total wage review bill should have been N48bn, but the government approved N41bn of that, doctors receive about N11bn in total.
Resident doctors constitute roughly 60% of all doctors, leaving them with less than N10bn
“We don’t know any N11.9bn. What was agreed is N2.9bn for accoutrement allowance and another N2.4bn for consultants’ non-clinical duty allowance, plus N400m COVID-19 arrears for other workers — amounting to about N6bn,” he insisted.
Suleiman also faulted the ministry over its comment on the dismissal of five doctors at the Federal Teaching Hospital, Lokoja, which it said is under review by a government negotiator, Prof. Dafe Otobo.
“We don’t know the professor they mentioned. Those doctors were targeted for their union activities,” he stressed, demanding their unconditional reinstatement.
The NARD President argued that portraying doctors as greedy was unfair, stating that the association has 19 outstanding demands, many of which require no financial expenditure.
“Our issues go beyond money. Some demands can be resolved with just a memo. Instead, the ministry is spreading narratives to make doctors look ungrateful,” he said.
Suleiman praised the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Wale Edun, for promptly attending to financial aspects of the dispute, but criticised the attitude of the Health Ministry.
“The Ministry of Health is a different story. Their language shows they’re not genuinely interested in resolving these problems,” he said.
NARD called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to intervene decisively to prevent further deterioration of the health system.
“We are asking the President to ensure the Health Ministry genuinely engages us. Let them stop propaganda and solve the real issues,” he appealed.