HOSPITALS across Nigeria are bracing for a nationwide shutdown as nurses under the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), Federal Health Institutions Sector, commence a seven-day warning strike beginning Wednesday, July 30, 2025.
The strike action, which will paralyse healthcare delivery in at least 74 federal medical centres, teaching hospitals, specialist health institutions, state-owned hospitals and primary healthcare centres across the country, is being staged in protest over long-standing issues including poor remuneration, staff shortages, unimplemented allowances, and unsafe working conditions.
The union had on July 14, 2025, issued a 15-day ultimatum to the Federal Government, demanding immediate attention to their grievances to avert industrial action. However, the association says that no official response or negotiation has been initiated by the relevant authorities since then.
Speaking to News Point Nigeria on Monday, the National Chairman of the NANNM-FHI, Comrade Morakinyo Rilwan, listed several of the unresolved issues fueling the strike.
“Nurses are still being lumped together on the same salary structure with other health workers, despite the uniqueness of our job and the critical role we play,” Rilwan lamented.
“We are calling for a dedicated salary structure that reflects our professional contribution, as well as a review of allowances that have been stagnant or poorly implemented for decades.”
She noted that although a 2009 government circular directed that nurses on shift duty should receive 30% of their basic salary as shift allowance, they currently receive only 6.8%, the same as security guards.
“It’s unacceptable. We are the only professionals working round-the-clock shifts. Night duties come with immense physical and mental stress, not to mention security risks. Yet, we are treated as though our sacrifices don’t count.”
On the issue of uniform allowance, Rilwan disclosed that nurses receive ₦20,000 per annum, a figure that has not changed in over 20 years despite nurses being required to wear multiple sets of easily stained white uniforms each week.
“Doctors’ lab coat allowances were reviewed recently, but nurses were left out. We are demanding equity and respect.”
She further cited the need to raise the core duty allowance from 1.7% to 4%, the implementation of an already approved scheme of service, and the creation of a full-fledged Nursing Department within the Federal Ministry of Health, currently nonexistent.
According to her, many hospitals are grossly understaffed, even as thousands of trained nurses remain unemployed or underemployed.
“Nigeria trains over 10,000 nurses annually. We’re not short of professionals, we’re short of employment opportunities. The government simply won’t hire or pay them properly. That’s why many migrate abroad.”
She also decried the fact that nurses are often forced to work without basic supplies like gloves, syringes, or gauze, placing both patients and staff at risk.
Rilwan also highlighted that the Nursing and Midwifery Council Board, the main regulatory body for the profession has remained dissolved for over four years, leaving the profession in regulatory limbo.
“A profession without a board is a profession without direction. We demand the immediate reconstitution of the Council.”
In a move that will drastically impact healthcare delivery, the union declared that no form of medical service, including emergency care, will be provided during the strike.
“There will be no emergency services, no skeletal services, no partial compliance. The strike is total,” declared NANNM’s National PRO, Omomo Tibiebi.
“The 15-day ultimatum expires at midnight on Tuesday, July 29, and the strike begins at exactly 12:01 am on Wednesday, July 30.”
The action will affect all levels of public healthcare in Nigeria, including teaching hospitals, federal medical centres, neuro-psychiatric and eye hospitals, general hospitals, and all primary healthcare centres across the 36 states and the FCT.
Services in 774 local government areas will also be halted.
Health policy experts warn that the strike could lead to a near-total collapse of services in government hospitals, especially in rural areas where private health facilities are scarce or nonexistent.
As of press time, there has been no official response from the Federal Ministry of Health or the Presidency, even as pressure mounts for swift government intervention to avert a prolonged crisis.