Healthcare Crisis Deepens As JOHESU Declares Indefinite Strike

The Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) and the Assembly of Healthcare Professional Associations have announced plans to embark on an indefinite nationwide strike effective Saturday, November 15, 2025.

This development comes as the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) is already on an indefinite strike over similar concerns.

In a statement signed by JOHESU National Chairman Comrade Kabiru Ado Minjibir, the unions cited the Federal Government’s failure to implement the adjusted Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS) and resolve longstanding welfare and systemic issues affecting health workers as the reason behind the decision.

Concurrently, NARD has been on strike since earlier, protesting unpaid hazard allowance arrears, poor working conditions, and the government’s failure to implement agreed welfare reforms.

The separate strike actions will severely impact healthcare services in federal teaching hospitals, specialist centres, and state-owned hospitals across the country.

JOHESU, which represents various key unions, including the Medical and Health Workers’ Union of Nigeria, the Nigerian Union of Allied Health Professionals, and the Senior Staff Association of Universities, Teaching Hospitals, Research Institutes and Associated Institutions, expressed frustration over the government’s persistent delay in addressing the salary disparity among health workers.

“The crux of the matter is the prolonged delay in implementing the High-Level Body Committee’s report on the adjusted CONHESS since its submission to the Presidential Committee on Salaries and Wages in 2022,” the statement read.

The unions accused successive administrations of failing to address the issue, despite assurances from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu during a meeting with a JOHESU delegation in June 2023.

JOHESU claimed that initial delays were blamed on the absence of the Presidential Committee on Salaries, but even after its reconstitution, the matter was not given priority attention until recently.

Following a unanimous resolution during the JOHESU Expanded National Executive Council hybrid meeting on November 14, 2025, members of JOHESU-affiliate unions are set to embark on indefinite strike action until their demands are met.

According to the unions, members have, in line with labour law provisions, also served a 15-day notice to state governments and the FCT.