Photo File: An illustration showing a doctor

Resident doctors in the Federal Capital Territory have commenced an indefinite strike over what they described as government’s failure to address their demands.

In a statement issued on Sunday in Abuja by its General Secretary, Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), FCTA, Agbor Affiong, the union said the decision followed an Emergency General Meeting held on September 14.

“The Association of Resident Doctors, FCTA, at its Emergency General Meeting held on 14th September 2025, resolved to embark on an indefinite strike action with effect from 8:00 am, Monday, 15th September 2025,” the association said.

“This action follows the failure of Management to address any of our legitimate demands, even after a one-week warning strike.”

According to the statement, the strike will continue “until government and management show genuine commitment to the welfare of doctors and the health of FCT residents.”

The ARD-FCTA had last week embarked on a seven-day warning strike to press home its demands for better working conditions and the non-payment of entitlements. The doctors also expressed concern over a lack of manpower and poor welfare.

They warned that the situation was already taking its toll on physicians and threatened to embark on an indefinite strike if “meaningful dialogue” was not held within days to address their grievances.

“There will be a reassessment by the Congress, and hopefully, the dialogue is going to be meaningful. And if it’s not meaningful, then the Congress will not have a choice but to impose an indefinite strike,” the group’s chairman, George Ebong, said last Tuesday on a media outlet.

Lamenting the shortage of manpower, Ebong said the FCT has 14 district and general hospitals but lacks enough doctors and specialists, leaving one doctor to handle dozens of patients.

“We’re going to need as much as 200 or thereabouts [doctors]. We don’t even have anything close to that,” Ebong said.

“We have a doctor seeing more than 30 patients, 40 patients. We have a doctor doing up to 10 caesarean sections,” he said. “We have doctors who are on antidepressants. We have doctors who are on anti-hypertensives.”