The NARD National President, Dr Okhuaihesuyi Uyilawa, said this while addressing newsmen at the end of a closed-door meeting with the Federal Government and other relevant stakeholders on Sunday in Abuja.

According to Uyilawa, NARD had refused to sign the MoU that was brokered by its parent body, the NMA, and the Federal Government due to an undisclosed clause.

He said “We rejected the MoU, we didn’t sign it because we feel we are being punished for the failures of those in government,” he said.

He said the nationwide strike would continue and that they would proceed with the court case.

He, however, added that NARD leadership has to present the new MoU to its members before he could sign the document.

On his part, Ngige said that all other unions in the negotiation including the NMA and the Medical and Dental Consultants of Nigeria have signed the new agreement.

He noted that the meeting did not discuss the issue of ‘No Work No Pay’ but that all parties at the meeting agreed to an out-of-court settlement

A statement issued by the Office of the Speaker said the doctors, at the resumption of the meeting with Gbajabiamila, which began last week, said they would suspend the planned resumption of the strike as soon as they got paid for their salary arrears, ranging from one to five months.

The statement issued by the Special Adviser to the Speaker on Media and Publicity, Lanre Lasisi, said the doctors took the position after the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, said funds were available for the payment while assuring that her ministry would pay immediately a verified list of the beneficiaries was received.

The statement reads “The resident doctors had on April 1, 2021, embarked on an indefinite strike, making demands that included non-payment of house officers, abolishment of bench fees, non-payment of national minimum wage, salary shortfall for 2014, 2015 and 2016, residency training allowance, and payment of resident doctors on GIFMIS platform. All the issues raised by the doctors were resolved, except that of salary shortfall for 2014, 2015 and 2016. The issue involves all health workers with a cost implication of about N23bn, which the Minister of State for Health, Sen. Olorunnimbe Mamora, described as “huge and complicated.”

Also, there were claims that a case on the matter was before a court, which the Speaker asked the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, to produce the relevant court papers to back the claim as the resident doctors said their checks revealed there was no pending court case anywhere on the matter.

It was then agreed jointly by the doctors, the House led by the Speaker and officials of the ministry of health that the matter should be set aside until court papers were provided.

Others present at the meeting, which lasted up to late Tuesday evening, were the Deputy Minority Leader, Toby Okechukwu; Minority Whip, Gideon Gwani; Chairman, House Committee on Healthcare Services, Tanko Sununu, among others.

On the part of the Executive arm were Dr Ehanire; Head of Service of the Federation, Mrs Folasade Yemi-Esan; Chairman of the Committee of CMDs, Dr Jafaru Momoh; the NARD President, Dr Okhuaihesuyi Uyilawa, among others.