Healthcare workers under the aegis of the Joint Health Sector Unions and the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives have said that they will join the looming strike by the Nigeria Labour Congress scheduled to commence on Wednesday, August 2, 2023.

The NLC has put plans in place for a nationwide strike scheduled to begin next Wednesday.

Though a court order which barred the congress from going on strike in June still stands, our correspondent learnt that the congress noted that it could not fold its arms while Nigerians continued to suffer the effects of subsidy removal which has led to untold hardship.

Speaking in an interview with our correspondent, the National Vice Chairman of JOHESU, Dr Obinna Ogbonna, said health workers were feeling the pinch of the economic hardship, and were in need of a better life.

Dr Ogbonna said, “All the trade unions are one affiliate or the other to the Trade Union Congress and the NLC, so if the two of them unanimously agree on the strike, that means the unions in the health sector, the academics, private and other industries will be involved.

“So, it will be very dangerous if we have to embark on the strike. Even NANNM will join the strike because it is an affiliate of NLC.”

Ogbonna, however, warned against miscreants hijacking the planned strike.

Meanwhile, the President of the Nigerian Medical Association, Dr Uche Ojinmah, said doctors in the country would not be joining the NLC planned strike.

“We are not a member of the NLC, so we will not join the strike,” Ojinmah said.