•Compliance total –NANNM
•FG asks nurses to embrace dialogue as talks continue tomorrow
By Sola Ogundipe
Healthcare services in federal teaching and specialist hospitals and primary health centres across the country were disrupted yesterday as the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives-Federal Health Institutions Sector, NANNM-FHI, embarked on a 7-day warning strike to protest an alleged failure by the government to resolve their welfare demands.
Emergency and other critical care services were unavailable as nurses across many federal health institutions withdrew services in protest over poor welfare, allowances, and working conditions and other issues, in compliance with the directive by the association which is the umbrella body for nurses in the country.
The strike, which began in the early hours of the day, followed the expiration of a 15-day notice to the government to address demands over poor welfare, allowances, staff shortages and implementation of a 2016-approved nurses’ scheme of service in federal health institutions.
Confirming the situation in a chat, NANNM National Secretary, Comrade Enya Agatha Osinachi, told Vanguard that there was full compliance nationwide.
“We began the 7-day warning strike today and compliance was total. Like we stated earlier there is nothing like skeletal services of any kind. All our branches fully complied and we intend to maintain this until the end of the strike.”
Osinachi said further that the association was monitoring the situation to ensure there were no breaches, even as she could not confirm if government was in touch to dialogue since the strike commenced.
A last ditch measure to avert the strike was unfruitful as talks between the Minister of Labour and Employment, Muhammad Maigari Dingyadi, and the NANNM leadership ended in stalemate.
The nurses’s demands include gazetting of the nurses scheme of service approved by the NCE in 2016 in Minna, Niger State; implementation of the National Industrial Arbitration Court, NIC, judgment of January 27, 2012; upward review of professional allowance for nurses and midwives, and employment of nursing personnel and adequate provision of health facility equipment.
Other demands are creation of a department of nursing in the federal ministry of health; inclusion of nurses in the headship of the health policy-making body; a fair representation by the association on the board and membership in federal health institutions, centralisation of internship posting for graduate nurses, and consultancy for nurses and midwives.
The association is also demanding the withdrawal of the content of the recently released circular on revised allowances for health workers.
NANNM also threatened that if demands remained unmet by August 5, 2025, an indefinite strike would ensue, following a 21-day ultimatum in compliance with labour laws.
FG asks nurses to embrace dialogue as talks continue toomorrow
Meanwhile, the Minister of Labour, Muhammadu Dingyadi, has appealed to the striking association to suspend the ongoing strike, saying it was not the best solution to industrial disputes.
The minister urged the association to embrace dialogue while the government continued to work on addressing their concerns.
In a statement yesterday, the Head of Press and Public Relations in the Ministry of Labour, Patience Onuoha, noted that the minister held a meeting with the association on Tuesday in a bid to stop the industrial action.
The statement added that the meeting would continue tomorrow at the ministry of health, as government works out a resolution to the dispute.
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