By Gerald Olokungbemi
On Friday 16th of January, 2026, by as early as 9:40 AM, members of the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) engaged in a demonstration that started in front of the University College Hospital (UCH) and proceeded to the front of the office of the Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Professor Jesse Otegbayo before ending in front of the association secretariat.
This demonstration comes sixty-two days after the commencement of the strike and exactly eight days after the release of a circular by the Federal Ministry of Health & Social Welfare instructing all CMDs and MDs of affected hospitals to implement the ‘NO-WORK, NO-PAY’ law on striking JOHESU members.
In a brief conversation with Mrs. Olabisi Grace, the treasurer of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU), UCH Chapter, she was quick to mention that the workers were eager to return to their work as soon as the government addressed their concerns. She also confirmed that the peaceful demonstration was a nationwide arrangement by JOHESU workers across the 33 federally owned teaching hospitals in the country, with the exclusion of state-owned teaching hospitals.
The flagship demand of the JOHESU workers trails all the way back to January 2014, when an agreement was reached with the federal government to implement the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS), mainly for medical doctors, and the Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS) for other categories of health professionals. CONMESS has since been implemented, but CONHESS has failed to see the light of day.
As a result of the strike, residents in the UCH community at a point suffered disconnection from the national grid once again, owing to an inability to sustain payment of the electricity bills due to stalled patient traffic. It has since been reconnected, but the hours of light made available to residents have dropped to 2 hours per day. Consequently, scarcity of light and water has become the order of the day for University of Ibadan students of the College of Medicine residing in Alexander Brown Hall.
