The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike, has cautioned resident doctors in Abuja in opposition to threatening to embark on industrial motion.

Wike mentioned he wouldn’t pay doctors who embark on strike whereas he’s a minister, including that he’s able to contend with them in courtroom.

Addressing resident doctors, Wike mentioned he would make more cash when they embark on industrial motion.

“Make your recommendations, and we will see the ones we can do and those we can’t do. Don’t threaten me with a strike because I don’t like it. When you go on strike, I save money; even if you come back, I won’t pay; we will determine it in court.

“It’s not about promises but the reality on ground, I don’t believe in theory,” Wike mentioned.

Recently, the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors, NARD, have been on-and-off industrial actions because of the Federal Government’s failure to satisfy its calls for.

The doctors’ calls for, amongst many others, embody the rapid fee of the 2023 Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF), tangible steps on the “upward review” of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS), and fee of all wage arrears owed its members since 2015.

The doctors additionally need the rapid large recruitment of scientific workers within the hospitals and the abolishment of the bureaucratic limitations to the rapid alternative of doctors and nurses who go away the system.

They additionally need the rapid evaluate of hazard allowance by all of the state governments in addition to non-public tertiary well being establishments the place any type of residency coaching is finished.