A Healthcare System on Life Support: How Chronic Underfunding Is Pushing Nigeria Towards Another Doctors’ Strike
A Healthcare System on Life Support: How Chronic Underfunding Is Pushing Nigeria Towards Another Doctors’ Strike
By Matthew Eloyi
Barely a year after assuring Nigerians of renewed commitment to revitalising the nation’s healthcare sector, the Federal Government once again finds itself on a collision course with resident doctors. The latest ultimatum issued by the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), threatening a nationwide indefinite strike from August 10, is more than another labour dispute. It is a loud warning that Nigeria’s public healthcare system is dangerously close to collapse.
The announcement should alarm every Nigerian. Resident doctors constitute the backbone of medical service delivery in teaching hospitals and many federal health institutions. Their withdrawal from duty would not merely disrupt hospital operations; it could leave thousands of patients without timely access to life-saving treatment. Yet the possibility of another nationwide strike is not the real tragedy. The greater tragedy is that government appears to have learnt little from years of recurring industrial disputes in the health sector.
While the Federal Government deserves commendation for disbursing the 2026 Medical Residency Training Fund to eligible doctors, that singular achievement is overshadowed by a long list of unresolved welfare issues that have accumulated over months and, in some cases, years. Outstanding salary review arrears, unpaid professional allowances spanning 19 months, promotion arrears, delayed salaries for house officers, internship bottlenecks and prolonged onboarding processes paint the picture of a healthcare workforce that feels neglected by the very system it strives to sustain.
No nation that genuinely prioritises healthcare allows those responsible for saving lives to battle endlessly for salaries they have already earned. When doctors are compelled to repeatedly threaten industrial action before receiving their legitimate entitlements, the problem extends beyond labour relations. It becomes evidence of systemic governance failure and misplaced national priorities.
Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of NARD’s communiqué is not the demand for better pay but the conditions under which doctors are expected to work. Reports of assault, harassment and intimidation against healthcare workers have become increasingly common across the country. Doctors routinely endure excessive workloads, prolonged call-duty hours, inadequate manpower and poorly equipped facilities. Instead of creating an environment that encourages medical professionals to remain in Nigeria, the system continues to drive many of its brightest minds abroad in search of dignity, safety and better opportunities.
Nigeria’s healthcare crisis is fundamentally a funding crisis. Public hospitals continue to struggle with obsolete medical equipment, unreliable electricity supply, deteriorating infrastructure and insufficient staffing. Primary healthcare centres that should reduce pressure on tertiary hospitals remain underdeveloped in many communities. Universal Health Coverage, frequently cited as a government priority, cannot become reality when health institutions themselves are barely surviving.
Ironically, the economic consequences of neglecting healthcare often exceed the cost of investing in it. Every nationwide doctors’ strike translates into postponed surgeries, interrupted treatments, delayed diagnoses and avoidable deaths. Patients who can afford it seek expensive treatment abroad or in private hospitals, while millions of ordinary Nigerians bear the devastating consequences of a weakened public health system.
The repeated cycle has become painfully predictable. Doctors issue ultimatums. Government opens negotiations at the last minute. Temporary agreements are reached. Some promises are fulfilled while many others are forgotten until another strike looms. This reactive approach has neither restored confidence among healthcare professionals nor produced sustainable reforms.
The warning issued by resident doctors should therefore not be dismissed as another bargaining tactic. It reflects deep frustration with a healthcare system struggling under the weight of chronic underinvestment and policy inconsistency. The demands raised by NARD: timely payment of salaries and arrears, improved welfare, modern medical infrastructure, protection against workplace violence, adequate manpower and accelerated implementation of healthcare reforms are not extravagant requests. They are fundamental requirements for any functional health system.
The government still has an opportunity to avert another nationwide disruption. Rather than waiting until the eleventh hour, it should immediately settle outstanding financial obligations, conclude negotiations on the Medical and Health Workers’ Collective Bargaining Agreement, implement recommendations on excessive workloads, improve hospital infrastructure and provide adequate budgetary support for the health sector. Equally important is the enactment and enforcement of laws that protect healthcare workers from assault while performing their duties.
Healthcare is not an expense to be managed reluctantly; it is an investment in national productivity, economic growth and human security. Countries that have transformed their health systems did so by recognising that healthy citizens form the foundation of sustainable development.
If the government fails to heed this latest warning, another doctors’ strike will once again expose the fragility of Nigeria’s healthcare system. But beyond the disruption of hospital services lies a more profound question: how many more warnings will it take before healthcare receives the funding and attention it deserves? Nigerians have grown weary of recurring crises. What the country urgently needs is not another round of negotiations after an ultimatum, but a decisive commitment to rescue a healthcare system that has remained on life support for far too long.
