The Chairman of the Senior Staff Association of Universities, Teaching Hospitals, Research Institutes and Associated Institutions (SSAUTHRIAI) AE-FUTHA Branch, Comrade Bertrand Ogbuani, on Wednesday, insisted that the strike embarked upon by Health Workers under the Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU) will not be suspended until the Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS) is reviewed upwards.

Speaking with journalists in Abakaliki, Ogbuani noted that the strike became unavoidable after the Federal Government consistently failed to honour agreements reached with the unions since 2012, noting that the strike will continue until the Federal Government does the upward review.

He noted that the salary structure for non-medical health workers, known as CONHESS, was legally designed to undergo review every four years, but for the past 12 years, nothing has been done to review it, adding that the strike will not be lifted unless the Federal Government does the needful.

“Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) for doctors has been reviewed three times since 2014, while CONHESS has never been reviewed even once. Are we not part of this country?” he queried.

“It is like giving birth to twins and feeding only one. The government keeps reviewing CONMESS and abandoning CONHESS. How can workers survive under such injustice?”

On his own, Comrade Silvanus Nwankwo, Chairman of the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN) AE-FUTHA and Coordinator of Tertiary Health Institutions, said that we are on an indefinite strike and we don’t know when we’re returning until the government does the needful.

The union leader noted that multiple meetings, memoranda of understanding, and ultimatums have been ignored by the government, emphasising that workers cannot continue caring for patients while working on empty stomachs and struggling to provide for their own families.

Despite the collapse of services in many federal hospitals, the unions said the government must shoulder the blame.

“If the health sector is suffering today, it is the Federal Government that should be held responsible. We have tried dialogue for years; they only listen when we down tools,” Nwankwo added.

The unions also dismissed fears of intimidation, salary seizure, or punitive queries, tactics they said government agencies repeatedly used to weaken strikes.

They assured their members that such measures have never stood the test of time, recalling similar threats during the 2018 strike that were eventually reversed with full salaries later paid.

“We feel the pain of patients, but we also have families. No sector can function when agreements are ignored. We are only asking for what we are legally entitled to,” they said.

For now, the strike continues indefinitely, with unions vowing not to return until the Federal Government revisits CONHESS, pays outstanding wage awards, and implements all pending agreements that have dragged on for more than a decade.