By John Umeh
Healthcare delivery across Nigeria has entered a crisis mode as nurses under the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM) began a seven-day nationwide strike today, July 30, 2025. The industrial action, which affects all 74 federal tertiary health institutions, including Federal Medical Centres, specialist hospitals, and teaching hospitals, is already leading to partial shutdowns of medical services nationwide.
The strike follows the expiration of a 15-day ultimatum issued to the Federal Government demanding urgent attention to long-standing issues of poor remuneration, unsafe working conditions, staff shortages, and neglect of nurses’ welfare. With negotiations deadlocked and key officials from the Federal Ministry of Health reportedly absent from the last round of talks, the union resolved to withdraw services as a warning shot.
Across major cities such as Abuja, Lagos, Ibadan, Enugu, and Port Harcourt, Federal Medical Centres are operating skeletal services or none at all. Wards lie empty or are attended to by overstretched doctors and auxiliary staff. In some hospitals, patients were discharged en masse, while in others, new admissions were suspended entirely. Emergency units have been hit particularly hard, with critical care hampered by the absence of trained nursing staff.
Speaking on the strike, NANNM President Comrade Michael Nnachi described the action as “inevitable” after the government’s persistent failure to address core concerns affecting nursing professionals in Nigeria. He lamented the mass exodus of over 40,000 trained nurses to the UK, Canada, and Australia in recent years due to poor conditions at home.
“The government’s silence in the face of our demands has left us with no choice,” Nnachi said. “Our members are overworked, underpaid, and unappreciated. Many are leaving, and those who remain are burning out. If the government cannot guarantee our welfare, it should not expect uninterrupted service.”
Among the union’s demands are a revised salary structure specific to nurses, timely payment of allowances, massive recruitment to replace emigrated professionals, and the creation of a dedicated Department of Nursing under the Federal Ministry of Health.
In response, the Federal Ministry of Labour has urged the union to reconsider its stance, citing the potential danger to patients. However, NANNM insists that no real progress can be made unless government representatives approach negotiations with seriousness and concrete commitments.
Public reaction has been mixed. While many Nigerians sympathize with the nurses’ plight, patients and their families are bearing the brunt of the disruption. “I had to take my mother to a private clinic because there was no nurse to attend to her,” said a relative outside a Federal Medical Centre in Benin. “We cannot afford this strike, but we also understand why they are doing it.”
If no resolution is reached by the end of the seven-day warning strike, the union has hinted at the possibility of an indefinite, total shutdown of nursing services across the country—an outcome that could paralyze Nigeria’s fragile public healthcare system.
As tensions rise, all eyes are now on the Federal Government’s next move, with many hoping that dialogue, not silence, will be the path forward.
