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NLC slams FG over health sector neglect, labels situation a national crisis
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has criticized the government for systematic neglect of healthcare infrastructure and mistreatment of medical personnel through inadequate compensation, outstanding payments, and unfulfilled commitments, calling the circumstances a national crisis.
NLC President Joe Ajaero suggested that governmental approaches to public healthcare and medical worker welfare demonstrate a preference for overseas medical facilities rather than developing a capable domestic healthcare system that serves all Nigerians fairly.
READ ALSO: NLC issues four-week ultimatum to FG over tertiary institutions’ strike
These remarks came during the inauguration of the 51st Regular National Executive Council (NEC) gathering of the Medical and Health Workers’ Union of Nigeria (MHWUN) in Abuja.
Ajaero said: “Our health sector continues to bleed. It is not an accident; it is a direct result of a system that prioritises profit over people, that sees healthcare as a commodity and health workers as disposable instruments. You, the frontline workers in every pandemic — the pharmacists, the laboratory scientists, the porters — you are the lifeblood of this nation’s well-being, yet you are forced to work in conditions that sicken the very spirit of healing.
“You are overworked, underpaid, and disrespected. You face unimaginable trauma daily, only to be met with empty promises and a blatant disregard for your welfare. This is a calculated assault designed to break your will and privatise the commonwealth of our public health system. You have suffered severely from the unfaithfulness of the government to negotiated agreements because premium is not placed on the services that you render. Maybe, out of guilt, they prefer to die abroad!”
He emphasized that medical workers constitute the backbone of Nigeria’s national survival, noting that mistreatment of any worker “the entire working class is devalued.”d
“When you are forced to operate in a state of despair, you have only two choices, as the great Karl Marx identified: to withdraw your labour or to become more committed to the struggle.
“Withdrawal is not just a strike; it is the quiet despair that leads to burnout, to brain drain, to a slow death of the system. But commitment — the commitment you show by being here today — is the fuel of radical change. It is the resolve to organise, to mobilise, and to fight back against the unjust treatments in our hospitals and health institutions across the nation.”
The labour leader advocated for collective action across all healthcare unions to demand enhanced working environments, adequate salaries, and sufficient public health funding.
“Our solutions must therefore be as radical as the problems we face. We must unite and broaden the struggle; forge an unbreakable alliance with all health sector unions. Your strength is in your unity. A joint struggle across the entire health sector is invincible. JOHESU must be reinvigorated by bringing all unions on board,” he said.
Ajaero called on MHWUN to transform the NEC gathering into a launching pad for tangible resolutions and strategies demanding healthcare system transformation.
“This NEC meeting should not be a talk shop; it should be a situation room. The decisions you make here must resonate in the halls of power and on the floors of every hospital in Nigeria. Do not let them pacify you with tokens; demand a fundamental restructuring of the health sector. Demand living wages, safe working conditions, and adequate funding for public health. If not — Japa!”
The NLC president also stressed the importance of political mobilization before 2027 elections, encouraging workers to establish a political force representing their concerns instead of relying on traditional politicians.
“We must move beyond begging the bosses to becoming the architects of our own destiny,” he said.
Ajaero finished by commending MHWUN leadership and former labour pioneers for their persistence in pursuing justice and worker rights.
“Your President and Deputy President of Congress, Comrade Ado Sani and his General Secretary, Comrade Kiyawa, have continued to represent you well. We doff our hats to them! The NLC stands shoulder to shoulder with you. Your fight is our fight. Together, we will heal the healers, and in doing so, we will begin to heal our nation,” he said.
Justice Muhammad Nuraddeen Bello of High Court sitting in Sokoto State has sentenced three men, including a foreign national, to death by hanging, after convicting them on charges bordering on terrorism and arms proliferation.
The convicts, Yusuf Muhammad (alias Sallau), a Nigerien; Jabbi Alhaji Yalle; and Kabiru Muhammad, were apprehended on 13th June, 2025, by the Department of State Services (DSS) Counter Terrorism Unit in connection with cross-border criminal activities bordering on arms trafficking and terrorism.
Bello, who found all three defendants guilty as charged and sentenced them to death by hanging, while also ordering the forfeiture of all monetary exhibits recovered from the convicts to the Federal Government, said: “The conviction is the latest in a series of successful prosecutions by the DSS in its sustained operations against terrorism and organised cross-border criminal networks across Nigeria.”
The sentencing is coming about two weeks after the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja sentenced each of the five suspects arrested on May 31, 2026, by the DSS for their involvement in the November 21, 2025, attack on St Mary’s Catholic School, Papiri, Niger State, to 25 years’ imprisonment.
Justice Binta Nyako, had handed down the judgment after the men, including two Nigeriens, pleaded guilty to all four terrorism-related charges, bordering on support for the commission of an act of terrorism, breaching both Section 16 of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, and the Firearms Act, were pressed against them.
According to Count One, the men were accused of jointly conspiring to assist a terrorist by agreeing and intentionally playing various roles towards conveying 15 AK 103 rifles as well as about 1,434 rounds of 7.62mm live ammunition from the Diffa region, Republic of Niger, to one Malam Ahmad, a member of the Boko Haram terrorist group based in Borgu, Niger State, and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 26(1) of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.
Primate Elijah Ayodele, is on the verge of coughing out a whopping N10billion, if he fails to offer unrestrained apology to Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, former Governor of Kano State within the next 24 hours, and retract his claim that the former Minister of Defence is bidding his time to betray Peter Obi, to whom he is to contest the 2027 presidential election as a running mate.
Without doing so, the controversial cleric, should be ready for a major court battle with the vice-presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), the platform on which the pair is to contest the election.
In a letter indicating a legal action against Ayodele of the INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church over defamatory remarks, Kwankwaso, through Magaji Mato Ibrahim, SAN & Co., his lawyers demanded an immediate retraction and apology from the cleric over the allegations.
Details of the letter, dated June 11, and unveiled through the X platform of the legal team, was based on a viral video recorded during a live-streamed church service, where the preacher made allegations targeting Kwankwaso’s integrity as Peter Obi’s running mate under the NDC.
Quoting the cleric as stating: “KWANKWASO IS A FAKE TO OBI, KWANKWASO WILL BETRAY YOU. KWANKWASO HAS BEEN PAID TO BE VICE PRESIDENT TO OBI AMONG OTHER LIBELOUS COMMENTS WHILE PRETENDING TO BE A PREACHER,” the former governor said the comments were unprovoked, grossly unfounded, and carefully designed to create a rift within the ranks of the political party and its supporters.
Handing Ayodele a 24-hour ultimatum to publish a full and unequivocal retraction across all social media platforms and news outlets with the same prominence as the original video, they also demanded a written undertaking that he would cease and desist from making any further malicious statements against their client, warning that failure to comply, would lead to full legal actions.
The letter stated: “We shall claim substantial damages to the tune of Ten Billion Naira and cost of the action on a full indemnity basis amongst other reliefs.”
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Tuesday demanded the immediate end to the exportation of minerals from countries in Africa in their raw forms, which he said had led to massive exploitation of the continent.
The President, told member countries of the African Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG), a forum of Ministers in charge of Mining and Solid Minerals on the continent to speak with one voice to promote, collective interests, ensure value addition, and prevent the continent from becoming merely a source of raw materials for the rest of the world.
As the Grand Patron of the group, chaired by Dele Alake, Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, gave the charge while receiving a delegation of AMSG in the State House, Tinubu told the delegation that the group had a critical role to play in strengthening Africa’s bargaining power in the global mineral market and ensuring that the continent derives maximum value from its natural resources.
His words: “ What we should do is avoid bureaucracy and deceit; we must put an end to exploitation. The rest of the world won’t mind if your country is a cesspit of dams and rubbish and excavates your raw materials without giving value.
“It is our responsibility to collaborate and cooperate to ensure that these metals and minerals bring value to us, bring technology to us, and we can do it. It is how much each country will put into the research, development and refinery. I don’t see reasons we cannot demand centralisation of that conversation somewhere on the continent. So why not utilise that in our research and development and knowledge-based economy to enhance the quality of life and bring prosperity to our people.”
Emphasising that Africa possessed enormous mineral wealth that should be strategically harnessed to drive industrialisation, create jobs and accelerate economic transformation across the continent, the President, said the era of exporting raw minerals without local processing and beneficiation must give way to a new model that encourages investment in local industries, technology transfer and the development of value chains that retain wealth within Africa.
Alake, who had earlier expressed gratitude to the President for his exemplary leadership under the Renewed Hope Agenda, said the gesture had shown support for Nigeria’s mineral sector, especially in the local value-addition and economic diversification drive, where artisanal miners are empowered.
He told the President: “You encouraged us to look at the focal point of the establishment of this group, which is to ensure that the African natural resources, especially with regards to minerals, critical matters, are localised, the beneficiation coming directly to Africans generally.
“You charged us that we should set our sails very high and ensure that local value addition is a pivot around which all the objectives of this organisation should revolve.
“So, sir, we have gone implemented your charge and we are quitted that today local value addition is reverberating all over Africa.”
He added that some member countries have gone ahead to ban the export of raw minerals.
He explained members of the body were in Abuja for the Fifth edition of the African Natural Resources and Energy Investment Summit (AFNIS 2026), to push for a new continental approach to resource management and industrial development.
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