Federal health institutions across the country have been thrown into paralysis as health workers under the Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU) and its affiliate unions commenced an indefinite nationwide strike over what they described as 12 years of government neglect and refusal to review their Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS).
At a press briefing, Comrade Bertrand Ifeanyi Ogbuani, Chairman of the Senior Staff Association of Universities, Teaching Hospitals, Research Institutes and Associated Institutions (SSAUTHRIAI), AEFUTHA Branch, said the strike became unavoidable after the Federal Government consistently failed to honour agreements reached with the unions since 2012.
According to him, the salary structure for non-medical health workers known as CONHESS was legally designed to undergo review every four years.
However, while the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) for doctors has been reviewed three times since 2014, CONHESS has never been reviewed even once.
He said: “It is like giving birth to twins and feeding only one.
"The government keeps reviewing CONMESS and abandoning CONHESS. How can workers survive under such injustice?"
Comrade Silvanus Nwankwo, Chairman of the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN) AE-FUTHA and Coordinator of Tertiary Health Institutions, explained that the present strike is not a fresh action but a reinvocation of the suspended 2018 strike, made necessary by government’s refusal to honour several signed agreements.
“We are on an indefinite strike. We don’t know when we’re returning until the government does the needful.
“For 12 years we have been begging for what is legally ours. Many who should have benefited from the review have died waiting," he said.
The union leaders noted that multiple meetings, memoranda of understanding, and ultimata have been ignored by the government.
They emphasized that workers cannot continue caring for patients while “working on empty stomachs” and struggling to provide for their own families.
Despite the collapse of services in many federal hospitals, the unions said the government must shoulder the blame.
“If the health sector is suffering today, it is the Federal Government that should be held responsible. We have tried dialogue for years; they only listen when we down tools,” Nwankwo added.
The unions also dismissed fears of intimidation, salary seizure, or punitive queries tactics they said government agencies repeatedly used to weaken strikes.
They assured their members that such measures have never stood the test of time, recalling similar threats during the 2018 strike that were eventually reversed with full salaries later paid.
Nwankwo noted that both casual and full-time workers remain protected under union structures, warning against attempts to divide the health workforce.
In a joint appeal, the leaders called on Nigerians to understand the gravity of their struggle, insisting the industrial action is not against the public but against “years of injustice and failed promises.”
“We feel the pain of patients, but we also have families. No sector can function when agreements are ignored. We are only asking for what we are legally entitled to," he said.
For now, the strike continues indefinitely, with unions vowing not to return until the Federal Government revisits CONHESS, pays outstanding wage awards, and implements all pending agreements that have dragged on for more than a decade.
