The Coalition of Nurses in Zamfara State has commenced an indefinite strike over the state government’s alleged discriminatory salary implementation.
Governor Dauda Lawal has 24 hours to address their demands or risk a total collapse of healthcare services in the state.
In a letter dated September 11, 2025, and signed by Dr. Kabiru Zamau on behalf of the coalition, the nurses accused the state Ministry of Health of excluding over 1,000 nursing professionals from the salary benefits recently approved for health workers by the state government, while implementing it only for medical doctors.
The letter, which was copied to the state commissioner for Health, Head of Service, Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Zamfara State, the Medical Director of Federal Medical Centre Gusau, and the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), lamented that the government had ignored several appeals.
“Consequently, and as a last resort, the nurses of Zamfara State have been forced to withdraw their services. As of nine hours ago, the industrial action commenced across state government health facilities,” the coalition said.
The coalition warned that if urgent actions were not taken within 24 hours, nurses in federal health institutions, including the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Gusau, would join the strike in solidarity.
It cautioned that the strike could worsen the ongoing cholera outbreak in the state. “Allowing the entire nursing workforce to withdraw their services at such a critical juncture, solely due to an injustice perpetrated by a government official, would be an unprecedented and devastating failure of governance,” the letter stated.
They, however, urged Governor Lawal to intervene by directing the Ministry of Health to rectify the alleged discrimination and ensure the inclusive implementation of the new salary structure in the September payroll.
