Health workers under the Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU) and its affiliate Unions have commenced an indefinite nationwide strike, following Federal Government’s unwillingness to review their Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS) after signing an agreement to that direction.
The health workers had waited patiently for 12 years for the Federal Government to carry out the review but to no avail.
At a Press Conference, the Chairman of the Senior Staff Association of Universities, Teaching Hospitals, Research Institutes and Associated Institutions (SSAUTHRIAI), AEFUTHA Branch, Comrade Bertrand Ifeanyi Ogbuani, said the strike became unavoidable after the Federal Government consistently failed to honour agreements reached with the unions since 2009.
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?”
Also, the Chairman of the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN) AE-FUTHA and Coordinator of Tertiary Health Institutions, Comrade Silvanus Nwankwo explained that the present strike is not a fresh action but a re-invocation 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 Ultimatums 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 gradual collapse of services at Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital Abakaliki, AEFUTHA, and many other 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 industrial actions in the Country.
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 that 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.
Even as the strike action continues to gain momentum, the health workers have vowed not to return to their duty posts until the Federal Government revisits the agreement surrounding CONHESS, by paying their outstanding wage awards and arrears, which have dragged on for more than a decade.