•Protesting health workers
The Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) and the Assembly of Healthcare Professional Associations (AHPA) have declared an indefinite nationwide strike, starting from midnight today, Friday, November 14, accusing the federal government of “long delay, inaction and outright disregard” for a twelve-year demand to adjust the Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS).
The decision was announced today at the Medical and Health Workers’ Union of Nigeria (MHWUN) National Secretariat in Abuja, following what the union described as a unanimous resolution of its Expanded National Executive Council, reports The Nation.
JOHESU said that all its affiliate unions: MHWUN, Nigeria Union of Allied Health Professionals (NUAHP), Senior Staff Association of Universities, Teaching Hospitals, Research Institutes, and Associated Institutions (SSAUTHRIAI), and Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions in Nigeria (NASU), would withdraw services from all Federal Health Institutions beginning midnight of November 14, 2025.
It directed workers in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory to “immediately serve their government’s 15-day notice in line with relevant provisions of the labour laws,” and assured state councils of full national support.
In a statement at the end of the meeting signed by the National Chairman of JOHESU, Comrade Kabiru Minjibri, the unions said it was necessary to “intimate our members in health institutions across the country and members of the public about the declaration of Trade Dispute in the Health Sector” and to highlight outstanding issues between the federal government and the unions.
The union said several correspondences had been sent to relevant ministries, departments, and agencies since the suspension of its last strike on June 5, 2023, which took what it called “the personal intervention of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
JOHESU stated that despite signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the federal government on October 29, 2024, after a seven-day warning strike, “there has been no positive response from the Federal Government on some of these issues despite assurances during subsequent meetings with relevant MDAs.”
The union described the current situation as “worrisome and unacceptable,” stressing that government inaction had left them with no alternative.
The union emphasised that the core of the dispute remains the non-implementation of the High-Level Body (HLB) Committee report on the adjusted CONHESS, which was submitted to the Presidential Committee on Salaries and Wages in 2022.
According to JOHESU, this demand has remained unresolved since January 2, 2014, when the government implemented a parallel adjustment for the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS), “in violation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement that established the two salary structures in the health sector in 2009.”
The statement lamented that “nothing has been done by successive administrations to redress this infraction,” adding that even after President Tinubu received a two-man JOHESU delegation in June 2023 and offered assurances, the demand was still ignored.
The unions said MDAs had repeatedly blamed the delay on the non-reconstitution of the Presidential Committee on Salaries, but asserted that “since the reconstitution of the PCS, the matter was not given priority attention until probably the last 48 hours when the Federal Government appears to have made practical moves to ameliorate the unpalatable delays which have pervaded for almost twelve years now.”
While expressing concern for ordinary Nigerians who will be affected, JOHESU said, “This situation is beyond our immediate control because of government inaction.”
The unions insisted that they had consistently prioritised social dialogue and had shown “maturity, selflessness and patriotism even in the face of extreme provocations and government’s long delay,” but now believe that “our maturity and patriotism have been taken for granted.”
The statement urged members to fully comply with the directive and warned that it “will not accept victimization of its members by the Government or any employer in the public health institutions across the country on account of this strike action, which is a dispute of right.”
JOHESU assured that all communication channels would remain open throughout the period of the strike.
