Posted on: Tue 03-03-2026

Healthcare services at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, were yesterday severely disrupted as workers commenced a five-day warning strike to protest what they described as deliberate internal electricity rationing by the hospital management.

The industrial action, declared by the Council of UCH Union Leaders (CUUL), a coalition of key staff unions, followed weeks of complaints over restricted power supply to critical service areas and residential quarters within the hospital.

The affected unions include the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MWHUN), National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), Nigerian Union of Allied Health Professionals (NUHAP), Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) and the Senior Staff Association of Universities, Teaching Hospitals, Research Institutes and Associated Institutions (SSAUTHRIAI).

Co-Chairman of CUUL and Chairman of JAC-UCH, Oladayo Olabampe, alongside Dr Uthman Adedeji, Co-Chairman of CUUL and Chairman of ARD-UCH, addressed journalists at the teaching hospital, accusing management of failing to prioritise uninterrupted power supply to life-saving units.

The union leaders lamented that surgeries were being cancelled routinely, laboratory investigations delayed, and life-saving diagnostic equipment left idle due to inadequate power distribution within the facility.

“For months, service delivery areas have been subjected to internal rationing. Theatres are thrown into disarray, medications and vaccines are lost due to broken cold chains, and research activities have ground to a halt,” the unions said in a joint statement titled ‘Let There Be Light’.

They warned that the continued rationing had endangered patients and exposed healthcare workers to unsafe conditions, including surgeries conducted with headlamps, nurses relying on mobile phone torchlights in wards, and laboratories handling hazardous samples without functional extraction systems.

The unions further decried severe water shortages caused by the inability to pump water, increased risk of hospital-acquired infections, and security concerns for staff on night duty.

According to CUUL, the hospital is also suffering significant financial losses, as cases and procedures are being referred elsewhere due to unreliable power supply.

The workers demanded the immediate cessation of internal power rationing, restoration of water supply across facilities and residential areas, urgent replacement of faulty meters, and reversal of the newly imposed rent structure.

They called on the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, the Federal Ministry of Power and the Federal Government to urgently intervene to prevent further deterioration of services at what they described as one of Nigeria’s foremost tertiary health institutions.

As of press time, the management of UCH had yet to officially respond to the allegations.

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