The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has announced it would resume an indefinite nationwide strike action from January 12, 2026, following Federal Government’s failure to implement agreed welfare demands.
The doctors arrived at the decision at the Extraordinary National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held on January 2.
In a statement signed by the association’s President, Dr Mohammed Suleiman, and shared on X on Friday, the doctors union said the strike, tagged TICS 2.0, will commence at exactly 12:00 a.m. on January 12 and will remain in force until the government fully implements the association’s demands.
“NEC resolved to resume TICS 2.0 tagged ‘No Implementation, No Going Back’ with effect from 12th January 2026 by 12:00 am,” the statement read.
Suleiman said all centre presidents across NARD’s 91 centres nationwide have been directed to hold congress meetings and brief the media within seven days.
“NEC has also mandated every centre President from the 91 centres to hold a congress meeting and, at the end, do a press conference. We want 91 press conferences to saturate the spaces over the next seven days,” he said.
The association also announced protests to accompany the strike. “NEC has also directed centre-based protests from 12 to 16th January, 2026,” the statement said, adding that regional protests would follow before a national protest organised by the National Officers Committee.
Suleiman said the strike would only be suspended after full implementation of NARD’s minimum demands, including the reinstatement of the “FTH Lokoja Five”, payment of promotion and salary arrears, full implementation of the professional allowance table with arrears captured in the 2026 budget, and the reintroduction and implementation of the specialist allowance.
Other demands include clarification on entry level and skipping issues by the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, resolution of house officers’ salary delays and arrears with issuance of a pay advisory, recategorisation and issuance of membership certificates after Part I by the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria, commencement of locum and work hours regulation committees, and resumption and timely conclusion of the collective bargaining agreement process.
Explaining the timing of the action, Suleiman said, “The one-week window provided is strategic to allow proper congress meetings, media engagement, and statutory notifications of the planned protest to security personnel… as well as hospital management.”
NARD had earlier warned on December 28 that Nigeria risked another nationwide shutdown of medical services over the Federal Government’s failure to honour a Memorandum of Understanding. The association suspended its 29-day strike on November 29, 2025, after the government promised to implement its demands within four weeks, a deadline NARD said elapsed without progress.
As of press time, the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare had not issued an official response.
