Nurses, under the umbrella of the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives\u2013Federal Health Institutions Sector, have insisted that their planned seven-day warning strike will begin on Wednesday.\n<\/p>\n
The members vowed to complete the strike even if the government called for negotiations.\n<\/p>\n
Speaking in an interview with our correspondent on Tuesday, the National Chairman of NANNM-FHI, Morakinyo Rilwan, said the government had 15 days to respond to their demands but failed to act.\n<\/p>\n
The union, on July 14, 2025, issued a 15-day ultimatum to the Federal Government, demanding immediate intervention to prevent a total healthcare shutdown.<\/p>\n
Some of the demands of the nurses are the upward review of shift allowance, uniform allowance adjustment, a separate salary structure for nurses, increased core duty allowance, mass employment of nurses, and the establishment of a nursing department in the Federal Ministry of Health, among others.\n<\/p>\n
Rilwan said, \u201cAs far as we are concerned, there has been no communication from the government to this moment. That is why we are saying the strike is going on, and nothing is stopping it.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if the government calls today or tomorrow, it won\u2019t stop the strike. They had enough time.<\/p>\n
\u201cFifteen days is enough for them to call us for negotiations. It is because they are not sensitive to the welfare of the masses. That\u2019s why they allowed 15 good days to elapse.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Rilwan noted that the strike was initiated by members who had grown tired of poor working conditions.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cFor over 40 years, we have been patient with them. They subjected us to no provision of gloves or equipment, and for the past 40 years, nurses have not embarked on any strike.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we gave them 15 days\u2019 notice. Maybe they are looking at it that these people have not gone on strike for a very long time, so they are not going to go on strike. But they are wrong,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
According to him, members were prepared to face any consequences, including \u201cno work, no pay.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
He said, \u201cThis strike is not initiated by the leadership of the union; it was initiated by the members, and they said this is what they want.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, we don\u2019t have any option but to allow them to exercise their rights, because they are tired.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are not even contemplating \u2018no work, no pay,\u2019 because that is the only language the government can use, and they are ready because the money they are taking is not even enough for them.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are ready to sacrifice that as long as this strike continues.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
He explained that after the seven-day warning strike, if no reasonable agreement was reached, they would give another 21-day ultimatum to the government, according to labour law, before proceeding on an indefinite strike.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the 21 days elapse and there is no reasonable response from the government, we would embark on a total and indefinite strike,\u201d he added.\n<\/p>\n
Addressing reports that some hospitals may not participate, he clarified that only institutions without financial members of the association are excluded.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody is pulling out. Federal Medical Centre, Ebute-Metta and Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Lagos, have not been part of our association because of some issues.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have opted out of the association for the past three years, so they are not legally covered to participate in this strike because they are not legitimate financial members of the association.<\/p>\n
\u201cOther hospitals in Lagos and other states, including the Federal Capital Territory, are joining the strike,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nurses, under the umbrella of the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives\u2013Federal Health Institutions Sector, have insisted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4316],"tags":[105,4348,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-303669","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114941713161650680","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}