Striking Nigerian doctors to embark on nationwide protest over unmet demands

Striking Nigerian doctors on Saturday said they will embark on a nationwide protest, accusing the country’s newly elected president of ignoring their demands for better pay, better work conditions and payment of owed earnings.
The protest, scheduled to start on Wednesday, adds to other challenges confronting Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu, who is leading efforts by the West Africa regional bloc of ECOWAS – which he chairs – to restore democracy in Niger after last week’s coup.
The protest became necessary “to press home our demands, which have been largely neglected by our parent ministry and the federal government,” Dr. Innocent Orji, president of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors, wrote in an Aug. 5 letter to the country’s ministry of health, a copy of which was made available to The Associated Press.