New Telegraph-Admin 
As deep concerns are being raised over the under the global par healthcare delivery status in Nigeria, the Trade Union Congress,(TUC), the Nigeria Labour Congress, (NLC), working in collaboration with the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) have issued a 14-day ultimatum to the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, over health workers’ pay. They are in fact threatening a nationwide strike.
This is not only disturbing but, comes out clearly as another avoidable wastage of precious time, much-needed energy and of course, priceless human lives. If carried out it would weaken an already fragile national economy. According to the unions the 14-day ultimatum takes effect from January 23, 2026 warning that failure to comply would compel organised labour to mobilise workers nationwide across both public and private sectors.
They insist that the government’s failure to implement the adjusted Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS) for health workers is at the heart of the matter. In a joint statement the labour unions accused the ministry and other relevant government agencies of deliberately refusing to implement the report of a technical committee set up to address salary distortions in the health sector.
The ultimatum comes against the backdrop of an ongoing nationwide strike by JOHESU and the Assembly of Healthcare Professional Associations (AHPA), which entered its third month on Friday January 23, 2026. The industrial action began on November 15, 2025. The strike was declared indefinite after what the unions described as the Federal Government’s prolonged failure to implement the adjusted CONHESS and address longstanding welfare concerns affecting nondoctor health workers.
With the proposed labour crisis rearing its ugly head in a country which according to the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, had only 74,543 registered doctors for a population of about 218 million specifically in 2022 – a doctor– patient ratio of 1:3,500, which falls alarmingly short of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) recommended 1:600, the resolution of the bone of contention would act as a safer prevention rather than any reactive cure.
In the light of this, the unions advised the Federal Government to avert what they described as an avoidable national industrial action by implementing the 2021 technical committee report on CONHESS without further delay. It would be recalled that due to alleged salary distortions and government inaction, a technical committee, jointly constituted by the government and organised labour was set up to look into their grievances. Chaired by the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, it submitted its report back in 2021.
It is, therefore, understandable why the unions described the prolonged delay, with regards to implementing the report as no longer an administrative lapse but “a conscious act of injustice, bad faith, and institutional disrespect” towards health workers and organised labour.
Our set of political leaders should muster the political will to appropriate adequate funds for standard healthcare delivery for the masses, because all said and done – health is wealth
Before the latest 14‑day ultimatum on CONHESS implementation, TUC had, on January 14 issued a separate seven‑day ultimatum to the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to withdraw a circular enforcing a “No Work, No Pay” policy against striking health workers. The congress described the directive and the subsequent stoppage of salaries for members of the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) through the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) as “reckless, authoritarian and confrontational.”
The ultimatum followed a January 8, 2026 circular by the ministry directing chief medical directors and medical directors of federal health institutions to apply the “No Work, No Pay” policy against JOHESU members participating in the ongoing strike. JOHESU and AHPA said the action was triggered primarily by delays in implementing the report of the High-Level Body Committee on CONHESS, which was submitted to the Presidential Committee on Salaries and Wages in 2022.
In retrospect, the unions argued that their demand for salary adjustments dates back to 2014, when similar adjustments under CONMESS were implemented for doctors, while non-doctor cadres under CONHESS were left behind in an alleged breach of the 2009 Collective Bargaining Agreement.
According to the union, the decision to embark on the strike followed a unanimous resolution at its Expanded National Executive Council meeting on November 14, 2025, much in compliance with Section 41 of the Trade Disputes Act, Cap. T8, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004. In all of these avoidable delays, broken trust on agreements reached is the sick, vulnerable and poor masses that have to bear the brunt of the misgovernance of the healthcare sector.
In fact, media reports have revealed that health facilities in places such as Kano, Kaduna, Akwa Ibom, Lagos and Abuja, the FCT currently operate largely on skeletal services. Specifically, laboratories, pharmacies, medical records and diagnostic units are shut across many public hospitals.
Given a sad situation of decrepit and dilapidated infrastructure across several healthcare centres in the country and a workforce depleted by the exodus of doctors and nurses to foreign shores, the Federal Government should give a listening ear to the cries of the healthcare workers. Agreements reached should be implemented as at when due with transparency and accountability.
Also, budgetary allocations to the healthcare sector at the state and federal levels should be upgraded to reach that recommended by WHO. Our set of political leaders should muster the political will to appropriate adequate funds for standard healthcare delivery for the masses, because all said and done, health is wealth.
