Nigerian health workers declare indefinite strike

The Joint Health Sector Unions, JOHESU, has announced an indefinite strike.

The union said the latest industrial action would paralyse activities in all health institutions across the country.

“All federal government health institutions in Nigeria including federal medical centres, specialists’ hospitals, orthopedic hospitals, psychiatric hospitals among others will be the first to shut down.

If the government allows the strike to continue after two weeks, all the states and local government health institutions will now join,” the National Vice Chairman of JOHESU, Ogbonna Chimela, told newsmen on Monday.

The members of JOHESU are hospital workers, including nurses and pharmacists, but excluding medical doctors and dentists.

Chimela said the strike will commence from midnight on Tuesday.

“Before now we gave the government 21 working days as an ultimatum. Last month, we so threatened to go on strike after 30 working days, whixh expires today (Tuesday) and government have not really done anything tangible.

“They only invited us on April 5 and told us that our issues are being looked into as usual without any concrete effort on how they are planning to meet our demand.

“So our National Executive Council (NEC) met in Abuja and appraised the situation and we resolved to continue with the strike, no going back”, the union leader said.