NMA Warns Nigeria's Healthcare Risks Shutdown If Govt Ignores Doctors' Demands, Ultimatum

President of the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, Dr Bala Audu, has once more urged the Federal Government to withdraw the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission’s circular on the review of allowances for medical and dental officers in the federal public service.

Jul 10, 2025 - 16:28

NMA Warns Nigeria's Healthcare Risks Shutdown If Govt Ignores Doctors' Demands, Ultimatum

President of the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, Dr Bala Audu, has once more urged the Federal Government to withdraw the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission’s circular on the review of allowances for medical and dental officers in the federal public service.
Audu spoke against the backdrop of the
21-day ultimatum given to government by the association on July 2, 2025, noting that the nation’s healthcare system risked a total shutdown if the doctors’ demands were not met.
He spoke on Channels Television’s programme, "The Morning Brief," on Thursday.

According to Audu, the circular on the consequential adjustment of allowances under the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure for medical and Dental Practitioners in Nigeria was issued without negotiation with the workers and therefore, was unacceptable as it was issued unilaterally.

According to him, the observations made by the doctors were completely ignored, while the Federal Ministry of Health was not involved in developing the circular.
Audu's words, “What is at stake is that we risk the whole healthcare system of this country being shutdown, which the Nigerian Medical Association does not in any way want to see happen and the Nigerian Medical Association and indeed every Nigerian doctor is working to ensure that this does not happen as long as the government is responsive.

“And it has clearly been shown that each and every component of our request is a low-hanging fruit. In fact, none of these components needed to have come to the public at all.
“There were no inputs or dialogues with us who presented the complaints to them, so that if there are any issues to negotiate, we could have mutually negotiated them.
“But beyond that, the circular did two very critical, unacceptable things. The first was to erode the already existing relativity within the pay packages across the health professions.

“Having done that, it did not stop there; the circular actually went ahead to reduce some of the allowances of the very senior consultants, many of whom we know are already leaving this country.”
“Our demands are very simple and straightforward. We don’t have a single demand that is new; all our demands are already approved demands.
“The only demand that is unilateral is the product of the circular by the salaries, incomes and wages commission, and our simple demand is that the circular of the salaries, incomes and wages commission should first and foremost be withdrawn so that all stakeholders can come to the negotiating table and discuss.”
Audu then added that the partial introduction of new allowances to different sectors of the medical workforce further affected the medical professionals.