Strike: Minister begs health workers to resume

The Minister of State for Health, Dr Khaliru Alhassan at the weekend appealed to health workers in the country to suspend their action in the interest of the nation.

The workers, under the umbrella of the National Union of Allied Health Professionals (NUAHP), are currently on nationwide strike over certain demands from the government.

The Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU) had reportedly dissociated itself from the NUAHP action.

The minister spoke at Ido-Ekiti, during the upgrading of Federal Medical Centre, Ido-Ekiti to a Federal Teaching Hospital and the signing of Memorandum of Understanding between the Federal Government and Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti.

The memorandum followed the building of a N2 billion Clinical Complex by ABUAD owner, Chief Afe Babalola, in the hospital as part of the requirements by Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria and National Universities Commission, NUC, for the running of Medicine and Surgery.

But Alhassan’s plea came days after government in a circular signed by the Director, Department of Hospital Services, Federal Ministry of Health, Abuja, Dr Patience Osinubi, declared the strike illegal.

Osinubi said the “No work, no pay” was now in effect and that the process of disciplinary action against those who embarked on illegal strike would soon begin.

The union, however, insisted that it would continue with the strike until its demands were met.

It said the federal government was responsible for the problem in the sector with its double standards, maintaining that some rulings by the National Industrial Court (NIC), which were in favour of the union, were yet to be implemented by the government.

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