NARD Sounds Alarm As 30 Doctors Assaulted In One Year
A doctor is attacked roughly once every two weeks in Nigeria’s hospitals, fresh figures from the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors have shown, laying bare the deepening risks frontline health workers face in the very institutions where they save lives.
No fewer than 30 resident doctors were assaulted across Nigeria within the last year, highlighting the growing dangers faced by healthcare workers in the course of their duties. Data provided by the association showed that at least 21 cases of assaults on healthcare workers were reported nationwide during the period, with about 30 resident doctors directly affected.
The statistics further revealed that fewer than five cases had been charged to court, while only one assailant had been convicted to date. The association said this meant that, in effect, “approximately every two weeks, another case of assault against a healthcare worker is recorded.”
NARD said hospitals, which “should serve as safe havens for healing and lifesaving interventions, have increasingly become unsafe environments” where doctors are exposed to threats, physical violence, emotional trauma, intimidation, harassment and even kidnapping. The body warned that the trend posed a serious threat not only to health workers but to the country’s healthcare delivery system and national health security.
National President of NARD, Dr Muhammed Suleiman, described the development as “intolerable, unacceptable, and dangerous to the survival of Nigeria’s healthcare system,” warning that the situation was creating fear among doctors and worsening workforce shortages as many consider leaving the country. He said NARD “would no longer fold its arms while doctors are treated like criminals in the institutions where they serve humanity,” adding that recent threats against one of its members were being treated with utmost seriousness.
The figures follow a string of recent attacks. On Friday, May 15, 2026, doctors and other staff were assaulted at the Emergency Department of the University College Hospital, Ibadan, after the death of a patient prompted a relative to turn violent. Earlier, on February 5, 2026, a resident doctor at the Federal Medical Centre, Owo, was attacked at the Accident and Emergency Unit by relatives of a surgical patient. A separate review found that at least 17 major tertiary health institutions across the country had recorded attacks on doctors within the past year.
The violence is feeding into an already fragile workforce. A total of 4,193 doctors and dentists left Nigeria in 2024, according to the Nigeria Health Statistics Report, while 43,221 health professionals migrated between 2023 and 2024. Officials put the doctor-to-population ratio at 1:5,000, far short of the World Health Organisation’s recommended 1:600.
Professional bodies have begun pressing for legal reform. The Nigerian Medical Association and NARD have urged the government and lawmakers to enact stronger protections for health workers and ensure swift prosecution of offenders, with NMA President Prof Afekhide Omoti noting that existing labour laws offer doctors no special protection against assault. At its Ordinary General Meeting in Kano, NARD issued the Federal Government a 21-day ultimatum to begin protective measures and declared an industrial dispute over 14 unresolved demands.
Stakeholders have warned that safeguarding health workers is now central to retaining skilled manpower and keeping the system afloat.