Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) has raised concerns over the ongoing week-long industrial action by the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) and the Assembly of Health Care Professional Associations (AHPA), urging the Federal Government to intervene without delay.
The President of PSN, Ayuba Ibrahim Tanko, who spoke during a courtesy visit by a PSN delegation to the Secretary to the Federal Government, Senator George Akume, described the JOHESU/AHPA strike as a “national emergency that must not be allowed to linger.”
He advised the government to maintain the momentum initiated at the onset of the strike to bring the industrial action to a halt.
“We are concerned because all 73 Federal Health Institutions (FHIs) and even non-hospital-based facilities where JOHESU members are domiciled have been paralysed by the effect of this strike.
“We strongly recommend that the unprecedented momentum generated in the last 24 hours preceding the strike by the Coordinating Minister of the Economy be sustained to break this logjam immediately.”
The striking unions under JOHESU/AHPA are calling for an upward adjustment of the Consolidated Health Salary Scale (CONHESS), similar to the adjustments made to the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) in 2014, 2017, and 2018. Tanko noted that the unresolved issue has persisted for almost twelve years.
“The CONHESS is the operating wage payment platform for JOHESU/AHPA members and nurses who together constitute over 95 percent of the entire healthcare workforce in Nigeria,” he said. Tanko further highlighted that health workers have staged strikes over this issue in 2015, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024, and now in 2025.
JOHESU is composed of the Nigerian Union of Allied Health Professionals (NUAHP), Senior Staff Association of Universities, and the Teaching Hospitals Research and Academic Institutions (SSAUTHRAI), the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN), and the Non-Academic Staff of Universities and Research Institutions.
“Since 2022 the high level body chaired by the Chairman of the National Salaries and Wages Commission (NSIWC) had recommended that this fund be paid health workers and this report was sent to the office of the Director General, Budget Office in line with protocol,” he added.
Tanko also announced PSN’s plan to launch a N5 billion endowment levy, which he said will be “dedicated to promote Pharmacy Education and some level of research as we advance Pharmacy to new levels and frontiers in the quest for more serious global reckoning.”
