ABUJA, Nigeria — Hospitals and health centres across Nigeria were left in eerie silence on Monday, July 28, 2025, as a nationwide strike by nurses and midwives paralysed healthcare services, forcing many facilities to discharge patients and halt critical care operations.
The industrial action, spearheaded by the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), saw wards emptied, emergency units shuttered, and patients left to their own devices, marking the first strike by Nigerian nurses in more than four decades.
At the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi, one of Lagos State’s major tertiary centres, the once-busy corridors stood still.
Abandoned beds, idle equipment, and darkened waiting rooms told a story of a healthcare system under duress.
The association had on Thursday, July 10, 2025, issued a 15-day ultimatum to the Federal Government, citing unresolved demands that include improved staffing, better working conditions, and greater inclusion in healthcare decision-making.
Among their key demands are the creation of a dedicated Nursing Department in the Federal Ministry of Health, implementation of 30 per cent shift duty allowance, 20 per cent specialist allowance, and an upward review of uniform allowance to ₦300,000 annually.
Also on the list are the constitution of governing boards for both the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN) and federal health institutions, review of call duty allowances, and demands for peculiar workload compensation, retention allowances to curb brain drain, and tax waivers for health professionals.
The walkout has had ripple effects nationwide, with some hospitals resorting to skeletal operations while others closed emergency services entirely.
Minister of Labour and Employment, Muhammad Dingyadi, appealed to the nurses to reconsider their action.
Speaking after a meeting with the union leadership on Monday, July 28, 2025, Dingyadi described the strike as an unhelpful approach to industrial disputes.
“The ministry recognises the legitimacy of their concerns, but a strike is not the best way to resolve these issues. We urge the association to embrace dialogue,” Dingyadi said, according to ministry spokesperson Patience Onuobia.
She added that discussions between the government and the union would continue on Tuesday, July 29, 2025, as efforts to resolve the dispute intensify.
In several hospitals, patients expressed frustration over the disruption to healthcare services.
“We came here in pain, only to be told to go home. My brother needs surgery, but now we don’t know what to do,” said Chinedu Okafor, whose sibling was discharged prematurely from a federal hospital in Abuja.
Medical consultants and a few emergency workers struggled to fill the gap in some locations, but the shortage of nurses rendered many units inoperable.
While doctors in Nigeria have frequently embarked on industrial actions, the strike by nurses is unprecedented in recent memory.
