The Nigerian Navy has assured house officers affected by prolonged salary delays at the Nigerian Navy Reference Hospital, Calabar, that the issue will be resolved within the next two weeks.
The assurance followed a viral video by one of the affected doctors, identified as Dr. Innocent, who alleged that he and seven of his colleagues had worked for about 290 days without receiving salaries.
Responding to the claims in a post on X on Sunday, the Director of Naval Information, Navy Captain Abi Folorunsho, explained that the affected doctors belonged to the supplementary batch of house officers whose salaries are processed by the Ministry of Defence.
Folorunsho said, “We are addressing this issue. The fact is that house officers are managed by the Ministry of Defence, and he was in the supplementary batch, unlike the initial batch, who receive their payments regularly.”
He noted that the salary delay was not peculiar to the Nigerian Navy, adding that house officers serving in Nigerian Army and Nigerian Air Force hospitals under the same arrangement were also experiencing similar challenges.
“However, this situation is not specific to Nigerian Navy hospitals; it also applies to Army and Air Force hospitals,” he said.
The Navy spokesperson disclosed that despite the delay in salary payments from the Ministry of Defence, the hospital management had continued to pay the affected officers an additional stipend.
“Nevertheless, the hospital has consistently paid his allowances, an additional stipend regardless of Ministry of Defence payments, along with those of the initial batch of house officers, who receive their salaries continuously from the Ministry,” Folorunsho stated.
While acknowledging the hardship caused by the delay, he assured the affected doctors that efforts were ongoing to resolve the matter.
“This situation is not ideal, but it will be resolved within the next two weeks,” he added.
Earlier, Dr. Innocent had appealed to the authorities in a viral video, saying he and seven colleagues had gone nearly 10 months without salaries despite carrying out critical clinical duties at the Nigerian Navy Reference Hospital in Calabar.
According to him, the house officers manage the General Out-Patient Department and Accident and Emergency Unit on a daily basis, assist in surgical procedures, and serve as a vital link between consultants and patients due to a shortage of resident doctors.
“We do a lot of work here. We almost literally run this place, and we have gone 290 days without pay,” he said.
He also lamented that repeated efforts to seek intervention from officials of the Ministry of Defence had produced no tangible outcome.
“Our contact person at the Ministry of Defence doesn’t seem to know when we’ll be paid. It seems to be beyond him, and right now we do not know what to do,” he said.
Describing the situation as mentally and physically draining, the doctor called on the relevant authorities to urgently address the issue.
“We can’t stay 290 days—that’s over nine months—without being paid,” he appealed.
