Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU) has called on Nigerians to hold the Federal Government accountable for the ongoing hardship caused by the strike of its members, warning that patients and those in need of medical care should not blame the union.
JOHESU’s one-point demand remains the full implementation of the report on the adjustment of the Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS) for health workers.
Speaking on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Monday, the union’s National Secretary, Martin Egbanubi, said, “We know the impact of the strike on Nigerian citizens, but Nigerian citizens should not hold us responsible. The government should be responsible because the government must do the needful so we can avert such a strike in the future.”
Egbanubi acknowledged that the strike has affected many Nigerians who rely on public healthcare, but he said JOHESU members have also suffered losses.
“It’s quite unfortunate; we’ve said severally in different media engagements that we truly empathise with the masses of this country — the consumers of health [services], those who cannot afford health care outside the public health institutions. We sympathise and, of course, you know we are also part of this masses; our members are part of the masses. We have had casualties among our members; as of last week, we lost one of our members at the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital,” he explained.
The union urged Nigerians to appeal to the government to meet their demand and end the strike, stressing that continuing industrial action is neither convenient nor desirable.
“I think well-meaning Nigerians should appeal to the government to address the demand as quickly as possible so that we can suspend the strike because we are not deriving any pleasure in continuing with the strike. It is also not convenient for us because of a lot of difficulties associated with the implementation of a strike — logistics and all that,” Egbanubi said.
Despite multiple engagements with the government, including President Bola Tinubu’s assurance in June 2023 to mandate relevant ministries to address the issue, JOHESU says the demand has yet to be met.
“We sounded a series of warnings. We had a series of engagements before we resumed the strike that was suspended in 2023, when the President intervened on June 5, 2023, that we should suspend the strike, and he would mandate the relevant MDA to address our issue. We have also written a letter to Mr. President to remind him of the engagement on June 5, 2023,” Egbanubi added.
