2027: We won’t endorse any candidate — Health workers

By Johnbosco Agbakwuru ABUJA — Ahead of the 2027 elections, the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN) on Wednesday declared that its members will not endorse or finance any candidate. The health workers also said they are rejecting a spectator role in the forthcoming elections and demanded binding commitments on CONHESS and outstanding arrears.

Speaking in his welcome address at the 52nd session of the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting in Abuja, the President of the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria, Comrade Kabiru Ado Sani, said the union will enter the 2027 general election neither as party loyalists nor as passive observers, but as an organised constituency demanding enforceable commitments on welfare, CONHESS arrears, and outstanding collective agreements.

In a strongly worded position ahead of the polls, the union said the question confronting health workers is no longer whether they will participate in the election, but on what terms. “The permutation is now upon us. The question is no longer whether health workers will be in it, but whether we shall be in it as spectators, as foot soldiers, or as a constituency with a strong position,” the MHWUN President said.

He warned that health workers must not allow their numerical strength and professional importance to be reduced to election-season mobilisation for politicians who may abandon their concerns afterwards. MHWUN insisted that it remains a trade union, not a political party, and would not endorse any candidate or political platform. “MHWUN is a trade union, not a political party.

We will not endorse any party or candidate, and the funds of this Union will not be used to finance any of them,” the union leader stated. He added that members remain free to vote according to their conscience, stressing that no individual has the authority to speak for the union while campaigning for a party. “Our members are free to vote their conscience, and no one speaks for this Union when speaking for a party,” he said.

The union argued that its political influence should not depend on telling members whom to vote for, but on forcing every contender for power to confront the health sector’s unresolved demands. “Our influence does not lie in telling members how to vote. It lies in making the health worker’s agenda impossible to ignore, whoever wins,” the MHWUN political head declared.

He explained that at the centre of that agenda are the CONHESS salary structure, unpaid arrears, and collective agreements reached with the Federal Government but yet to be fully implemented. The union framed its demands in legal as well as moral terms, insisting that agreements signed by the Federal Government cannot be treated as disposable political promises.

“A collective agreement signed by the Federal Government is an obligation of the State,” Dr. Sani said. “It does not lapse when a tenure ends, and no incoming administration is entitled to treat it as the debt of its predecessor.” He warned that any administration emerging from the 2027 polls would inherit not only government assets and the treasury, but also outstanding obligations to health workers.

“Whoever is declared winner after 16th January will inherit the CONHESS table, the arrears, and the unconcluded negotiations, along with the Treasury,” he said. While pressing for a strong health-worker voice, MHWUN urged members to participate lawfully and peacefully in the electoral process, avoiding conduct capable of damaging the union’s reputation or exposing members to risk.

“I therefore urge every member to take part peacefully in the electoral process and not to take any action that would smear the good name of the union or jeopardise the interest of our members,” the union leader said. He described the session as taking place at “a defining moment in our nation’s history,” citing a challenging economy and a general election just weeks away.

“Comrades, specifically, in less than eleven weeks, Nigerians will go to the polls. Between now and then, every candidate of every party will discover and acknowledge health workers.” He warned that health workers would be courted with familiar political language. “We will be called heroes, pillars of the nation, and the conscience of the health system.

We shall hear it all with courtesy sugar-coated in a political tongue. But let us remember that warm words cost nothing, and that they have never paid a salary, cleared an arrear, or built infrastructure.” The 52nd NEC meeting is holding under the theme, “Health Workers and Socio-Economic Crisis: Implications for the 2027 General Election.” According to the MHWUN President, the theme is “not an invitation to join the political contest as a worker,” but “a clarion call to health workers to understand the implications of the outcome of the 2027 general election and how it affects the social and economic conditions of the Nigerian health worker.” He said the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) has remained a