Resident doctors reject FG’s 25 percent salary increase
The Federal Government’s proposed 25% increase in doctors’ base pay as well as the N25,000 per quarter equipment allowance were both rejected by the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD).
The refusal follows the association’s nationwide indefinite strike that it declared to have begun at noon on July 26 because the government had not complied with its demands.
The National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC) issued a circular after the strike that included the meager 25% increase in doctors’ basic salaries as well as the accouterment allowance, which was observed by NARD’s National Executive Council (NEC), according to a statement from the Association’s president, Dr. Emeka Orji.
NEC adds that “her earlier demand is for full restoration of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure to its right value as at the time of the structure’s approval in 2009” and “vehemently rejects the paltry 25% increment in the basic salary of doctors, as well as the accouterment allowance.”
The current pay scale was adopted in 2014 after being authorized in 2009. Therefore, the resident doctors are requesting a return to the salary’s worth as of 2014, claiming that it has been diminished by inflation, an increase in exchange rates, and fuel prices.
Dr. Orji had previously been quoted by The Nation as saying, “At first, before the subsidy was removed, we requested a 200 percent wage rise. We did the calculations once again after the subsidy and fuel price changes, and the increase needed to return to the value of that wage in 2014 will be in the neighborhood of more than 600%.
Right now, we’re not discussing percentages at all; let the government calculate what we receive and let us know; all we’re asking for is full pay restoration, not even an increase. We can combat the brain drain in the nation with the aid of this.
Other demands of the doctors include the immediate payment of the Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF) for 2023; the release of a circular by the Federal Ministry of Health for the replacement of doctors and nurses who have left the system with new ones; payment of salary arrears; an increase in hazard allowance by state governments; and a request that the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) reverse her decision to downgrade the membership certificate.
Other points include the need for the government to step up security in the nation to prevent such incidents, the rejection of the casualization of doctors in all tertiary health institutions in Nigeria, and the immediate and unconditional release of one of its trainers, Prof. Ekanem Philip-Ephraim of UCTH Calabar.
