By Muhammad Amaan with agency report
Nurses and midwives have listed improved working conditions and remuneration as their important expectations in 2026, lamenting that the health sector was marked by more setbacks than progress in 2025.
The professionals, under the aegis of the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), warned that urgent reforms are needed to avert a deeper crisis in the health sector in 2026.
Assessing the sector, they said government engagement with nurses and midwives in 2025 had been largely discouraging, with little evidence of meaningful improvement in welfare or working conditions.
Speaking exclusively with PUNCH Healthwise on the state of the sector, the National Chairman, NANNM–Federal Health Institutions Sector, Mr Morakinyo Rilwan, said the development in the sector continues to negatively affect nurses and midwives, who remain central to service delivery across health facilities.
According to him, from the perspective of nurses and midwives, and generally in relation to government engagement with the profession, the situation has not been encouraging.
“When you look at the overall state of healthcare and how it affects nurses and midwives, what we have seen over the year is more setbacks and challenges than progress,” he said.
Mr Rilwan explained that the difficulties confronting the profession span critical areas that directly affect productivity and patient care.
“These challenges cut across training and retraining, remuneration, conditions of service, and the lack of a conducive working environment,” he stated.
The NANNM–FHI national chairman said these issues had persisted despite sustained efforts to engage authorities and improve standards within the profession.
“These issues that nurses and midwife have struggled with throughout the year in an effort to improve the profession, but the truth is that the only body that can effectively address these problems is the government,” Rilwan said.
Despite the challenges, he noted that nurses and midwives have continued to carry out their duties in line with professional ethics, prioritising patients even under harsh conditions.
The NANNM–FHI national chairman explained that this sense of responsibility accounts for why strikes have historically been rare among nurses, though prolonged hardship has made agitation unavoidable.
PUNCH Healthwise reports that the experience of nurses and midwives across the country led to a nationwide strike in July 2025. During the industrial action, hospitals across Nigeria witnessed a significant disruption in medical services and crippled medical facilities’ operations for four days.
The industrial action, which started on July 30, 2025, and was planned for seven days, was called off on August 2, 2025, after the nurses’ leadership and the Federal Government team met.
But speaking on government response, Dr Rilwan accused the government and other stakeholders of focusing on policies that fail to address the core problems facing nurses and midwives.
He Rilwan also challenged the frequent claim of a nationwide nursing shortage, describing it as a misleading narrative.
“The narrative of a ‘shortage of nurses’ continues, when in reality, the issue is underemployment and poor absorption into the system,” he said.
The NANNM–FHI national chairman stressed that many trained nurses remain unemployed, while hospitals fail to replace staff who retire or migrate abroad.
Reflecting on 2025, Rilwan described working conditions as consistently difficult, citing inadequate resources and weak institutional support.
He further criticised the effectiveness of government engagement platforms, lamenting repeated meetings without outcomes.
Looking ahead to 2026, the NANNM–FHI national chairman said nurses and midwives were hopeful that the government would change its approach.
He faulted disparities in salary adjustments within the health sector, calling for fairness and transparency in compensation.
“It is unfair that some salary structures are adjusted while others are left behind. If the government wants to introduce a unified salary scale, it should be done transparently, with everyone paid according to their roles and inputs,” he said.
Rilwan emphasised that all health workers are essential to the system and should not be played against one another.
“Everyone in the health sector is important, doctors, nurses, laboratory scientists, records officers, cleaners, and others. No one can do another person’s job, and no group should be favoured at the expense of others,” he added.
Outlining nurses and midwives’ expectations for 2026, Rilwan called for sincerity in the work of government committees and concrete steps to address the factors driving health professionals out of the country.
According to report, reports that no fewer than 16,156 Nigerian-trained nurses and midwives have been licensed to practise in the United Kingdom between 2017 and September 30, 2025.
This figure is based on the latest data from the UK’s Nursing and Midwifery Council register, obtained exclusively by one of our correspondents.
Mr Rilwan, however, urged the government to prioritise improved working environments and fair remuneration as the foundation for retaining healthcare workers.
