Operations at the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Enugu, were brought to a halt on Tuesday as health workers commenced an indefinite strike over what they described as unfair promotion practices by the hospital management.
Members of the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) and the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM) staged a mass protest within the hospital premises, paralysing activities across the facility.
The industrial action followed the hospital’s 2025 promotion exercise, which workers alleged left many employees on the same grade level despite successfully passing promotional examinations. The unions had earlier issued a 21-day ultimatum to the management on April 27, 2026, before proceeding with the strike.
The unions accused the management of subjecting workers to career stagnation and what they termed “disguised demotion” under the guise of promotion.
Protesters marched through the hospital chanting solidarity songs and carrying placards demanding an immediate reversal of the promotion exercise.
Labour leaders described the policy as unjust and detrimental to employees’ career progression.
“There’s no way somebody will go through the rudiments and process of promotion exams and you still keep him in the same position. That is another name for stagnation,” said Comrade Innocent Ejike, who spoke on behalf of the Enugu State Chairman of NANNM.
Ejike insisted that organised labour would resist the policy until the issue was addressed.
“As far as we’re concerned, what is wrong will never stand. If they’re working against you, they’re working against all of us and we’ll never allow that to stand,” he said.
Another union official, Comrade Chukwuemeka Edwin, likened the situation to a similar dispute that occurred in 2011 at the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Enugu.
According to Edwin, workers strongly resisted the policy at the time.
“What they did to us then was that people moving from CONHESS 10 to 11 were promoted to the same CONHESS 10, while those moving from 11 to 12 were retained on the same level of 11. We resisted it completely,” Edwin said.
