Lagos nurses set to call off strike Monday as Gov Sanwo-Olu grants requests

After hours of extensive meeting with Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, nurses in Lagos on Sunday night agreed to suspend the 

planned three-day warning strike as soon as a circular containing the agreements is issued by the government on Monday and 

the same is discussed at an emergency congress of the nurses’ union.

Credible insiders at the meeting, who do not want to be named, said the governor has approved “in principle almost all the 

demands by the nurses, especially the retention allowance, and recruitment of more persons to fill the vacuum created by 

the exodus of our colleagues abroad and based on retirement.”

The sources confirmed that an emergency congress of the state’s chapter of the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and 

Midwives (NANNM) has been tentatively fixed for 12 noon at the union’s secretariat on Monday.

The new development, according to the sources, however, implies that the strike would continue until the congress 

finalises its deliberations on the contents of the circular that is expected by the union from the government on Monday.

But joining the meeting on Monday alongside the governor were the same set of government officials whose composition had 

earlier been rejected by the workers for what they described as their consistent failure to address their concerns.

The officials included the health commissioner and his counterpart at the ministry of establishments, Akin Abayomi, and 

Ajibola Ponnle respectively; permanent secretary at the ministry of health and his counterpart at the health service 

commission, Olusegun Ogboye, and Benjamin Eniayewu respectively; chief medical director of the Lagos State University 

Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Adetokunbo Fabanwo, among others Premiumtimesng