The Lagos State Branch of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) has issued a serious warning that the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) and the Assembly of Healthcare Professionals Association (AHPA)—representing thousands of health workers across Nigeria—is preparing to issue a formal ultimatum to the Federal Government. Following a critical review of unresolved demands related to salary disparities in the health sector, the NEC is expected to demand immediate action, failing which its members will commence a full nationwide withdrawal of services. This development signals a potentially severe disruption to healthcare delivery across the country, placing pressure on the Federal Government to respond decisively to avoid a nationwide strike that could cripple public health institutions. Expressing deep concerns over the sector’s salary disparities, Oyekunle Babayemi, Lagos PSN Chairman condemned the latest circular of the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, dated August 19, 2025, which he said unfairly entrenched salary relativity in favour of physicians. Speaking at the Scientific Week In Lagos on Thursday, Babayemi, said, “The Federal Government cannot impose unlawful scripts on citizens of Nigeria. Section 25 of the Trade Union Act forbids a non-member of a trade union from negotiating collective agreements for another union. What has happened here is a clear violation,” he stated.He noted that the circular effectively upgraded members of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) above their counterparts on CONHESS, thereby creating “a relativity within a relativity” that could truncate the professional destiny of other health workers.The statement also reads, “Our appraisal confirms that what the Federal Government is institutionalising creates a relativity within a relativity because members of the NMA have been illegitimately blessed with an entry point of grade of level 10 for Housemanship and level 13 after Youth Service. A new circular which entrenches relativity in the value chain of the equivalent of every grade level such that from the equivalent of grade level 12 a fresh relativity of 1:1.2 gets to a peak level of 1:1.5 at grade level 17. This is not only a misnomer but an outright truncation of the professional destiny of non-physician cadre of health workers in Nigeria. “The global norm in labour is to have Universal salaries for all workers presumed to be on the same grade level in both the public & private sectors. This climax of the absurdity where persons on the same grade levels in the Health Sector earn different salaries in favour of physicians is not justifiable and will be resisted so that it does not stand.“This climax of absurdity, where persons on the same grade levels in the health sector earn different salaries in favour of physicians, is not justifiable and will be resisted so that it does not stand,” Babayemi warned. “The CONMESS 2014 reverse table reflects a progressive increase over the CONHESS 2011 values. The difference grows larger with each step and level indicating a more generous salary regimes in CONMESS . “After a series of consultations between the various trade unions and the over 75 professional associations in the Health Sector we wish to posit as follows, JOHESU/AHPA rejects in its entirety the new circular on relativity issued by the NSIWC on August 19, 2025 particularly because it is both an unlawful and immoral piece of documentation. “Consequent to our position as stated earlier, JOHESU/AHPA demands suspension of the circular. If the Federal Government does not immediately suspend this circular, we shall mandate our representatives on the Federal Government driven CBA Technical Committee which is proving to be a template to execute hatchet jobs for NMA initiatives to withdraw from the committee and declare a trade dispute.“In the days ahead the National Executive Committee (NEC) of JOHESH/AHPA after a critical review shall issue the Federal Government an ultimatum pursuant to full withdrawal of the services of its members nationwide based on an appropriate response to our demands.“The Federal Government is hereby notified that Organised Labour is very well briefed of the brand of reforms government is imposing on the Health Sector because the godfathers of the NMA have become too powerful for the Federal Government to whip into line in the quest to achieve normalcy in Government-Labour relations.“We shall demand that Organised Labour report this anarchy to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to provide insight to the monumental injustice we contend with in Nigeria.” The Lagos PSN boss also warned that the Federal Government’s policies have failed to address the escalating prices of drugs in Nigeria, leaving millions of citizens stranded and at risk. According to him, President Bola Tinubu’s executive order of June 2024 intended to reduce drug costs had collapsed under weak implementation and entrenched systemic problems. “Despite the seemingly good intentions of government to crash drug prices, we are now facing an unprecedented increase in drug costs and, in some cases, a scarcity of life-saving medications,” Babayemi lamented. He recalled that the PSN had earlier warned the government and Coordinating Minister for Health, Prof. Ali Pate, that drug prices could not be reduced in the short term through executive fiat since the pharmaceutical value chain was still heavily dependent on imports. According to him, government agencies such as NAFDAC, the Nigeria Customs Service, and the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) have “chosen to look the other way while Nigerians are continually shortchanged.” Babayemi accused NAFDAC of worsening the crisis through multiple fees for Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) inspections at foreign sites. “The financial burden of GMP inspection fees, pegged at $10,989 for the first player to a site and $5,000 for subsequent players, is monumental injustice. “It is not regulation; it is revenue generation at the expense of the people’s health,” he declared.He warned that the planned Track and Trace policy of NAFDAC would further drive up drug prices by as much as 70 to 85 percent, pushing essential medicines out of the reach of ordinary Nigerians. The PSN chairman therefore called on President Tinubu to urgently constitute a Presidential Committee on the Pharma Sector, headed by a registered pharmacist, to deliver sustainable solutions.The Lagos PSN boss reiterated the Society’s commitment to advocating policies that will ensure access to affordable medicines, equity in the health sector, and better working conditions for all health professionals. (Daily Independent)

•L to R: Olumide Akintayo Past President ,PSN; Prof Cyril Usifoh, Immediate Past President, PSN and Keynote Address Speaker, Solomon Aigbova Chairman of the occasion; Babayemi Oyekunle, Chairman PSN Lagos State and Shakerat Adeosun,Vice Chairman PSN Lagos State at the Scientific Week of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) Lagos branch, weekend.

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