25,000 nurses begin nationwide strike today
Healthcare services across Nigeria face major disruption from Wednesday, July 30, as 25,000 nurses, under the umbrella of the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), Federal Health Institutions Sector, embark on a seven-day nationwide warning strike.
This follows the expiration of a 15-day ultimatum earlier issued by the Association to the federal government amid the faceoff between doctors and the government over welfare and other issues.
According to the National Chairman of NANNM-FHI, Morakinyo Rilwan, the strike would involve a total withdrawal of services across all federal health institutions.
“The 15-day ultimatum ends by Tuesday, July 29, 2025, by midnight, and the warning strike commences on Wednesday, July 30, 2025, at 12.01am.
“The action would include 74 federal hospitals – teaching hospitals, federal medical centres, specialist hospitals like orthopaedic, neuro-psychiatric, and eye centres, as well as all general hospitals and primary healthcare centres in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory and 774 local government areas
Private hospitals are not included. This is because for now, the private practitioner nurses are not spread over Nigeria,” he said.
Rilwan added that the strike was in response to issues which include poor remuneration, staff shortages, unpaid allowances, and unsafe working conditions.
It would be recalled that
the union, had on July 14, 2025, issued a 15-day ultimatum to the federal government, demanding immediate intervention to prevent a total healthcare shutdown.
But Rilwan noted that despite the ultimatum, the federal government had not initiated any negotiations, highlighting that the strike became necessary after the federal government and the Federal Ministry of Health failed to respond meaningfully to its July 14 ultimatum.
While emphasizing that no invitation had been extended to the union from the federal government or federal ministry of health since the 15-day ultimatum was given, the NANNM National Chairman stated that the strike will be a total of seven days in all federal institutions, secondary and primary health care in the country.
“The decision is aimed at drawing urgent attention to the critical issues affecting nurses nationwide”, he said
