FG, Resident Doctors’ resolve to pay 2026 salary arrears

By Precious Mark

The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has finalized talks with the Federal Government to secure the immediate payment of long-overdue monetary welfare packages for its members nationwide.

The emergency meeting, led by the P-MUS-led NARD National Officers Committee (NOC), was held with the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, and the Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Iziaq Adekunle Salako, to arrest a brewing industrial crisis.

Discussions at the meeting centered on the immediate disbursement of the 2026 Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF), alongside cash backing for promotion arrears and outstanding salary deficits.

The leadership of NARD specifically extracted commitments for the urgent clearance of salary backlogs severely affecting doctors across several federal health institutions, including the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Owo, the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospitals Complex (OAUTHC), the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital (UUTH), and the Federal University of Health Sciences Teaching Hospital (FUHSTH), Otukpo.

During the engagement, the NARD leadership commended the health ministry for fast-tracking administrative procedures by transmitting the finalized database of eligible resident doctors for the 2026 MRTF to the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF) and the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) in record time.

Responding, the Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Iziaq Adekunle Salako, lauded the medical union for adopting a constructive approach over adversarial strikes.

Salako assured the doctors that the government is fully committed to stabilizing the clinical workforce, promising that bureaucratic bottlenecks delaying the 2026 MRTF, promotion backlogs, and institutional salary gaps would be cleared expeditiously.

In a follow-up statement signed by the NARD National Publicity Social Secretary (PSS), Dr. Abdulmajid Yahya Ibrahim, the association called on its members across the country to remain calm while the leadership monitors the finance ministry and central payroll administrators.