Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja
The Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) have begun mobilising well being employees nationwide for doable industrial motion over the federal authorities’s failure to implement the Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS) adjustment. This demand has remained unresolved for about 13 years.
The union, which warned that it could resist any try and frustrate the wage adjustment, mentioned it was not ready to tolerate additional delays in implementing the settlement.
This was a part of the resolutions reached at an emergency expanded National Executive Council (NEC) digital assembly held on Thursday, October 29, 2026, attended by its associates and organs at federal and state ranges.
In a decision collectively signed by the JOHESU National Chairman, Comrade Kabiru Minjibir, and National Secretary, Comrade Martin Egbanubi, JOHESU mentioned the season for uninterrupted implementation of the CONHESS adjustment was now or by no means, warning that it could not settle for threats from what it described as meddlesome interlopers over the welfare and way forward for well being employees.
The union recalled that President Bola Tinubu had, on June 5, 2023, promised to actualise the adjustment whereas interesting to JOHESU to droop its strike after assuming workplace.
It additionally recalled that the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare had, on the identical date, forwarded the 2021 High Level Body Technical Committee Report on the adjustment to the Budget Office of the Federation, the secretariat of the Presidential Committee on Salaries (PCS).
However, JOHESU accused the federal government of permitting the method to stall as a result of the PCS couldn’t meet, warning that any additional try to make use of the committee’s failure to behave as an excuse would meet resistance.
The union recommended the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) for taking decisive steps to safe the adjustment, describing it because the oldest demand in organised labour historical past.
It additionally reminded the federal authorities of the provisions of the Trade Unions Act, Cap T14, LFN, 2004, which allows commerce unions to barter profit packages and collective bargaining agreements on behalf of their members.
JOHESU consequently positioned its members on alert and directed the graduation of mobilisation throughout well being establishments nationwide for a doable industrial motion and what it described as essential however unparalleled resistance ought to the federal government yield to makes an attempt to frustrate the demand.
The union, nonetheless, urged members to stay peaceable whereas awaiting additional directives from the NLC and TUC, following the ultimatum and timeline issued to the federal authorities.
JOHESU includes the Medical and Health Workers’ Union of Nigeria (MHWUN); Nigerian Union of Allied Health Professionals (NUAHP); Senior Staff Association of Universities Teaching Hospitals, Research Institutes and Associated Institutions (SSAUTHRIAI); and Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU), together with its technical arm, the Assembly of Healthcare Professional Associations (AHPA).
