Relief At Last: Ministry Orders Immediate Release Of Withheld Nurses’ Salaries

The Federal Ministry of Health has directed the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation to release the January 2026 salaries that were withheld from nurses working in federal tertiary health institutions.....KINDLY READ THE FULL STORY HERE▶

The salaries were initially stopped after officials mistakenly assumed the nurses had participated in an industrial action organized by the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU).

The ministry clarified that the nurses were not involved in the strike and therefore should not have been affected by the Federal Government’s “No Work, No Pay” policy. It noted that the non-payment had caused significant financial hardship for the nurses and their families, despite the fact that they continued to carry out their professional duties.

The National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM) formally withdrew from JOHESU in 2023 and has not taken part in any of its recent strikes.

As a result, the ministry has requested the Accountant General to issue an immediate directive for the release of the delayed salaries in order to prevent unrest within the health sector.

In a memo to the Accountant General, the ministry explained that following the industrial action embarked upon by JOHESU and the Assembly of Health Care Professionals in November 2025, it had requested the suspension of salaries for JOHESU members in January 2026 in line with the “No Work, No Pay” policy.

However, the ministry acknowledged that nurses in federal tertiary health institutions were inadvertently affected by this directive, even though they did not participate in the strike. It emphasized that the continued withholding of their January 2026 salaries had caused undue economic hardship.

The ministry therefore urged the Accountant General to instruct the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) office to immediately process and pay the outstanding salaries to avert industrial disharmony.