Striking Nigerian doctors to embark on nationwide protest over unmet demands

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Striking Nigerian doctors on Saturday said they will embark on a nationwide protest, accusing the country's newly elected president of ignoring their demands for better pay, better work conditions, and payment of owed earnings.

The protest, scheduled to start on Wednesday, adds to other challenges confronting Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu, who is leading efforts by the West Africa regional bloc of ECOWAS — which he chairs — to restore democracy in Niger after last week's coup.

The protest became necessary “to press home our demands, which have been largely neglected by our parent ministry and the federal government,” Dr Innocent Orji, president of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors, wrote in an August 5 letter to the country's ministry of health, a copy of which was made available to The Associated Press.

The resident doctors are graduate trainees providing critical care at public hospitals across Nigeria, which has one of the world's lowest doctors-to-patients ratio, with two physicians per 10,000 residents, according to the Nigerian Medical Association.

The resident doctors have been on strike since July 26 to protest unpaid salaries and demand improvements in pay and working conditions.

But instead of meeting their demands, the nation's ministry of health directed a “no work, no pay” policy against them along with other “punitive measures,” Orji told The Associated Press.

In their letter to the health ministry, the doctors said they would also picket government offices and other institutions until their demands are met.

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