The failure of the Federal Government of Nigeria to heed the legitimate demand of the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) for a review of the Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS) after seventeen years is unacceptable. And that the FGN has refused to do so after a strike that has now gone on for over two months is outrightly condemnable.
Socialist Workers League unequivocally supports JOHESU in this fight. And we demand that the government takes concrete steps to review the CONHESS without delay. We welcome the trade union centres’ support for the JOHESU unions in this struggle.
The history of the CONHESS itself is one of working-class unity and struggle, in the face of attempts of the federal government to divide and conquer them. Healthcare workers in federal health institutions had waged a tireless struggle since the end of the last century to win benefits from the Harmonised Tertiary Institutions Salary Structure (HATISS). With the transition from HATISS after the creation of the Harmonised University Elongated Academic Salary structure, workers in the health sector had to relaunch their struggle. This led to the creation of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) and CONHESS.
Even after this was created, the federal government reneged and the workers had to fight to ensure that the salary structures were reviewed.
The federal government has refused to review the CONHESS since then despite the fact that there have been at least three reviews of the CONMESS and a review of the HAPSS.
At the heart of the matter is the welfare and working conditions of health and care workers who are members of the five trade unions constituting JOHESU. Together, they make up 85% of the health workforce.
They are overworked and underpaid. Several of their colleagues have left for greener pastures. But they have stayed and continue to do their best within very trying circumstances to help provide healthcare to the teeming population of Nigeria.
Health care in Nigeria itself is in shambles. It is inadequately budgeted for y the government. Twenty-five years after the Abuja declaration that governments of member states of the Africa Union should commit no less than 15% of their annual budgets to health care Nigeria has never gone beyond a commitment of 7%.
Nigerians are dying from preventable illnesses due to a poorly funded healthcare system and overworked healthcare workers. The least the government can do is to heed the demands of JOHESU now and properly fund healthcare delivery in Nigeria.
Jamiu TOWOLAWI
National Chairperson
Amara NWOSU
National Secretary
