The 2023 presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has expressed support for the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) ahead of the planned strike on Tuesday, April 7.
Atiku’s comments come following NARD’s declaration of an indefinite nationwide strike, citing the Federal Government’s plan to halt the implementation of the revised Professional Allowance Table — a key part of agreements reached after the 2025 industrial action.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday, Atiku asserted that NARD should not have to beg for what has already been agreed upon.
“The Federal Government signed a deal on the Professional Allowance Table, and now it wants to abandon it. This is not governance; it is betrayal. Our resident doctors are the last line of defence in hospitals that are already collapsing,” he stated.
Atiku lamented that doctors work gruelling hours in impossible conditions for pay that insults their sacrifice. “And now, the government seeks to take away the little that was promised?” he questioned.
The former Vice President urged President Bola Tinubu’s administration to demonstrate commitment to addressing the issues, including 19 months of unpaid Professional Allowance arrears.
He also decried promotion arrears gathering dust, a Medical Residency Training Fund stuck in bureaucratic limbo, and a government that treats its doctors as an afterthought, remaining unconcerned as they leave the country in large numbers.
Atiku noted that every Nigerian doctor lost to the United Kingdom, Canada, or Saudi Arabia represents a failure of leadership, not patriotism. “You cannot ask people to serve a nation that refuses to honour its own word,” he stressed.
He added: “I stand with NARD. Pay what you owe. Honour what you signed. Or explain to 200 million Nigerians why their hospitals will go dark on Tuesday.”
