Nigerian doctors walk off the job again. Overstretched and underpaid, many have left for overseas

CHINEDU ASADU

Resident doctors in Nigerian public hospitals on Wednesday launched their second strike this year to protest unpaid salaries and demand improvements in pay and working conditions.

The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors declared a “total and indefinite strike” following unsuccessful attempts to engage with the government, the group’s president, Dr. Innocent Orji, said in a statement issued after the group met Tuesday night.

Strikes by doctors in Nigeria are common, and the latest one could shut down some healthcare services in critical wards across under-staffed public hospitals in Africa’s most populous country. The resident doctors are graduate trainees who help provide urgent and critical care at the public hospitals.

An average of 200 resident doctors in Nigeria have relocated abroad every month over the last two years, seeking better pay, Dr. Orji told The Associated Press. Their positions are left vacant, further worsening the relatively affordable healthcare