The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, will meet with President Bola Tinubu as part of efforts to avert the planned industrial action by the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors.
Abbas noted that his meeting with the President would be to intimate him of the pending issues raised by NARD and appeal to the President on how to resolve them.
At a meeting with the national leadership of NARD on Monday in his office in Abuja, the Speaker also announced the setting up of an ad hoc committee to be chaired by the House Leader, Prof. Julius Ihonvbere, which will meet with all the stakeholders to address the issues.
The ad hoc panel has the immediate-past Chairman of the 9th House Committee on Healthcare Services, Tanko Sununu (All Progressisves Congress, Kebbi), as the Deputy Chairman. All medical practitioners in the House would be co-opted into the ad hoc committee.
The Speaker directed the ad hoc committee to swing into action immediately.
In May, resident doctors embarked on a five-day warning strike due to the Federal Government’s failure to meet their demands.
Also in July, NARD issued a two-week ultimatum to the government for the implementation of all its demands.
During the meeting with the NARD leadership on Monday, Abbas appealed to the resident doctors to give the House leadership two weeks period to find solutions to the issues raised.
He said the 10th House was inaugurated a little over a month ago and appealed to the resident doctors to see reason with the current leadership and “give us a little time to address this matter.”
He said, “Your decision to meet with the House is an affirmation of your faith and confidence in our capacity to intervene and resolve the lingering issues in dispute. This is most reassuring because the 9th Assembly had previously intervened in this matter. We hope to even go beyond the steps and actions taken by the previous House to ensure that we find a lasting resolution to the ever-lingering crisis.”
The leadership of the resident doctors, led by the National President of NARD, Dr Innocent Orji, acceded to the Speaker’s appeal and said they would get back to their members on the Speaker’s position.