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Doctors suspend strike after tense meeting, give FG 21-day ultimatum

28th July 2025

The Nigerian Medical Association has suspended its planned nationwide strike following a tense 12-hour emergency meeting, but has given the Federal Government a fresh 21-day ultimatum to meet its demands.

PUNCH Healthwise gathered that the decision followed a heated delegates’ meeting that began on Saturday and ended in the early hours of Sunday, during which the NMA leadership faced mounting pressure from members calling for an immediate shutdown of health services nationwide.

Confirming the development, NMA National Secretary, Dr Ben Egbo, said the association reached an agreement after high-level intervention from top government officials and state governors.

“It was a very turbulent meeting. We started at 2:30 p.m. and ended around 4 a.m. the next day (Sunday). There were multiple breaks, heated arguments, and even a moment where the NMA President had to step aside temporarily because of the level of tension,” Egbo said.

According to him, delegates from across the country strongly rejected the MoU signed between the NMA leadership and top government officials, citing its lack of specificity, timelines, and guarantees.

“The House was not satisfied with the MoU. It felt like another bucket of recycled promises. There was no assurance when the arrears would be paid, no clear commitment on the reconstitution of hospital boards, nothing concrete,” he said.

Egbo explained that the original MoU emerged after several days of negotiations between the NMA, the National Association of Medical and Dental Academics, and representatives from key ministries, including Health, Labour, and Education.

He added that a high-powered committee was set up, which deliberated for five days, culminating in the now-rejected agreement.

“Unfortunately, by the time we presented that MoU to the emergency meeting, the House saw through it. It lacked sincerity. They said Enough is enough. For the first time in recent history, doctors across the country were united in their resolve to shut down services,” Egbo added.

Egbo described the decision to grant the government a final 21-day window to meet its obligations as a painful but necessary compromise.

He stressed that the NMA was not driven by militancy or self-interest but by the urgent need to restore dignity and functionality to Nigeria’s failing health infrastructure.

“Doctors don’t go on strike for pleasure. We are the last people who want to see hospitals closed. But when you keep pushing us to the wall, even empathy reaches its limit. We’ve warned that after this 21-day extension, there will be no further dialogue—only action,” he stated.

The NMA had, in early July, issued a 21-day ultimatum to the government to meet its demands to avert industrial action in the health sector.

The group expressed disappointment and condemned the circular on the consequential adjustment of allowances under the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure for medical and dental practitioners in Nigeria.

Other demands include the provision of comprehensive health insurance coverage for all medical and dental practitioners; the immediate constitution of management boards for federal hospitals to improve governance and operational efficiency as stipulated in the Acts for Federal Tertiary Institutions; the issuance of a circular implementing the reviewed retirement age for medical and dental practitioners; and the implementation of robust welfare and well-being packages, including comprehensive health and social support for healthcare workers.

They also demanded the immediate reversal of the appointment of other healthcare professionals as consultants in hospitals, citing patient safety and the need to maintain medical care standards.

PUNCH Healthwise gathered that top government officials from the ministries of health, labour, and education met with the leadership of NMA last week in Abuja regarding some of the unresolved grievances.

During the meeting, our correspondent learnt that a Memorandum of Understanding was signed, including a promise to reverse the controversial circular.

The government also reportedly pledged to address some of the other demands made by the association.

It was, however, gathered that things took a new turn at the NMA’s emergency meeting on Saturday, where routine presentation and ratification of the MoU quickly turned into what insiders have described as “a volatile session that nearly tore the union apart”.

Sources present at the meeting but not authorised to speak, told our correspondent that delegates, visibly agitated, rejected the terms of the agreement, branding it as vague, insincere, and devoid of any meaningful timelines.

The rejection reportedly caused passionate debates and escalated calls for an immediate and indefinite nationwide strike.

According to the sources, the situation quickly deteriorated, prompting several emergency recesses. Behind closed doors, intense lobbying, negotiations, and power plays unfolded.

“The atmosphere was fraught with tension, as senior officials of the NMA tried to mediate and calm frayed nerves while exploring pathways to de-escalation.

“Recognising the severity of the situation and the threat of an imminent healthcare shutdown, the Federal Government swung into action,” one of the sources revealed.

The insiders confirmed to PUNCH Healthwise that at the peak of the deliberations, the atmosphere became so volatile that high-ranking federal officials, including two ministers and a senior intelligence chief, were urgently deployed to the meeting venue to appeal for calm and stave off the impending shutdown.

He added, “There were intense last-minute interventions. Phone calls from governors. Government emissaries pleaded. But even at that, the decision to suspend the strike was not handed over lightly,” said a senior NMA official who attended the meeting.

“The lobbying was not limited to federal emissaries. Governors from the ruling party were contacted and asked to intervene with us (delegates) who came from different states.”

PUNCH NEWSPAPER

Presidency Don Drop Update!
Dem talk say make everybody look for any thing wen go dey put money for their pocket join the one wen dem dey do before. Say only one source of income no good for obodo Nigeria 🤔

*PRESS RELEASE ON COMPLAINTS ABOUT PURPORTED SHORTFALL IN SALARIES*

Snakes, monkeys must not swallow $1.07bn earmarked for health, Atiku warns Tinubu’s govt

9 February 2025

Former Nigeria’s Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has warned that claims of animals such as snakes, termites, gorillas and monkeys swallowing public funds must never be the fate of the funds budgeted for the critical sector of health in the 2025 Budget.

In recent years, there have been bizarre claims of animals being held accountable for missing public funds. Some of these fairytale-like claims were never investigated or punished to deter future offenders.

In a statement personally signed by him on Sunday, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said the government must act transparently against the backdrop of dwindling resources that has been exacerbated by the withdrawal of support in certain areas of the nation healthcare services.

“To this end, the Federal Government has to be deliberate about putting mechanisms in place for public audit and accountability in its US$1.07 billion budgetary appropriation in the health sector,” Atiku said.

The former Vice President specifically queries the Federal Government for not providing comprehensive information on how it plans to expend the over one billion dollars in the primary health sector.

Atiku noted that while healthcare, especially the primary sector deserves rapid investment in order to promote access to quality and affordable health services to Nigerians, it will be immoral of the government not to provide extensive details of how the money allotted for the purpose would be dispensed.

“We have read that the Federal Government has a plan to expend a whooping sum of $1.07 billion in the primary health sector. This amount is in addition to the N2.48 trillion, which had earlier been proposed for the health sector in the initial draft of the budget.

“This development gets even more troubling when the government equally announced that the $1.07 billion it is adding to the health sector at the sub-national level was mainly sourced through foreign loans and a fraction of it being provided through an international donor agency.

“In other words, Nigeria is expected to pay these loans back and it is required that the Nigerian people know the details of these loans and that its expenditure must be conveyed in a policy envelop that will explain how it will be spent,” Atiku noted.

He says further that the failure of the Federal Government not to commit to a single physical infrastructure in expending the budgetary provision smacks of fraud.

According to the government, “the funds will be directed towards improving governance in healthcare and enhancing primary healthcare services nationwide. This financing will support recruitment, training, and retention of healthcare workers and teachers at the sub-national level…”

According to the former Vice President, for an administration that has been known to have a deficiency of trust in the administration of its humanitarian services, Nigerians cannot take the risk of accepting a shoddy explanation on a budgetary provision that lacks a mechanism of tracking how the money is to be expended.

“It is difficult for Nigerians to believe this current Federal Government given its proclivity to alternative truths – especially on their claims about investments in the social infrastructure.

“It is worrisome that the Tinubu administration continues to lie to Nigerians on the status of our tertiary hospitals when the sorry state of those hospitals lay bare for Nigerians to see.

“Just recently, the government began a campaign of improvements in the standard of our tertiary health institutions, but Nigerians know that these teaching hospitals often lack basic amenities such as access to a steady supply of electricity.

“Undoubtedly, the Tinubu administration has failed woefully in the health sector because of the poor funding of the sector.

“The major diseases in the primary health sector remain malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS treatment.

“If President Tinubu’s administration meant well in its claim to prioritize the health of Nigerians, his government should explain how it plans to spend this intervention fund in addressing these diseases in the primary health sector.

“On the contrary, what the government announced in its panic response to President Donald Trump’s announcement of the cancellation of American aids for the treatment of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria was a paltry N5 billion.

“If the Tinubu administration fails to provide a comprehensive framework to safeguard its purported huge investment in the health sector nor subject the appropriations to the scrutiny of the National Assembly, it may be safe to conclude that this is another episode of the administration committing a fraud in the name of public interest,” he said.

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Confirmed ✅
Some MDAs have started receiving December salary.
However, those that have not received that of November, our findings reveal that it is mostly an internal problem which is expected to be resolved soon.

Update:

The Nigeria Federal Government Suspend all the sacking of Certificate From Benin and Togo and give directives to the all ministries that they should be aware that not all graduate from those universities are with fake results.

A total sum of ₦1.727 trillion, being November 2024 Federation Accounts Revenue, has been shared to the Federal Government, States and the Local Government Councils.

FG begins payment of delayed November salaries.

The delay followed a disruption attributed to the ongoing migration from the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System to the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System.

The delay also affected Ministries, Departments, and Agencies, which temporarily lost access to their funds for various programs and projects.FG begins payment of delayed November salaries.

The delay followed a disruption attributed to the ongoing migration from the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System to the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System.

The delay also affected Ministries, Departments, and Agencies, which temporarily lost access to their funds for various programs and projects.

FG's 2025 budget allocates ₦9.64 trn, to personnel and pension costs. This is 20.13% of the total national budget, which stands at ₦47.9 trillion.

Fraternal greetings Comrades from the National Secretariat of the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU).

I have the directive of the National Chairman, Comrade Kabiru Ado Minjibir to give you the following updates from the National Follow up Team with respect to the FG and JOHESU MoU signed on 29th October, 2024 and Expanded NEC Meeting resolution on 31st October, 2024:

1. The attached document is a memo on cost implementation for the payment of seven (7) months arrears of 25%and 35% CONHESS & CONMESS Review from the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare to the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning and copied the Director General, Budget Office of the Federation. It's currently receiving attention and the team is following up appropriately through relevant MDAs.

2. The Team authoritatively confirmed that the Coordinating Minister of Health had sent a memo to President Bola Tinubu on JOHESU's flagship demands (CONHESS Adjustment in Particular) as earlier agreed.

3. The Minister of Labour and Employment after thorough follow up since resumption of duty has concluded all arrangements to communicate the letter on flagship demands within the Ministry's obligation contained in the MoU to President Bola Tinubu.

4. The Team through sustained follow up confirmed yesterday that staff of Health Professional Regulatory Agencies (13 under the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare) have started receiving nine (9) Months salary arrears while the remaining two (2) months shall be paid with December 2024 salary.

5. The restoration of funding and payment of outstanding salaries for staff of Environmental Health Regulatory Council under the Federal Ministry of Health is being followed through the Federal Ministry of Environment and relevant MDAs.

6. The Team also received latest information on the appointment of Pharmacists as Consultants in some Federal Health Institutions (FHIs)

Above updates for your attention please.
Further updates shall be communicated accordingly.

Thanks to our Leaders and entire Comrades for your understanding, confidence, and solidarity.

People United, can never be defeated!

Aluta continua! Victoria ascerta!!

In solidarity,

Comrade Martin Egbanubi,
JOHESU National Secretary.
National Secretariat, Abuja
05 December, 2024

SEVEN MONTH ARREARS LOADING