Salako’s First Week Back: Inside Government’s Race To Avert Health Sector Shutdown
Nigeria’s fragile health system was firmly in focus last week as the Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Iziaq Kunle Salako, hit the ground running after the New Year, spending five intense days shuttling between negotiations, media engagements and high-level meetings to avert looming strikes and strengthen healthcare delivery.
From Monday, January 5, Dr Salako presided over marathon meetings with ministry officials and key stakeholders over the strike threats by JOHHESU and the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), later engaging the Minister of Labour in a last-minute push to keep health workers on duty
The following days saw the Minister take the government’s case directly to Nigerians, appearing on AIT’s Kakaaki, Channels TV’s Sunrise Daily and ARISE News, where he outlined the Tinubu administration’s efforts to improve health workers’ welfare and prevent service disruption
Behind closed doors, Dr Salako also led multiple tripartite meetings involving the National Assembly, hospital managers and NARD leadership, signalling a coordinated political and technical approach to resolving industrial disputes in the sector
The week ended on a forward-looking note, with the Minister receiving an international delegation on the “Towards Safe Blood in Nigeria Project”, a decade-long Nigeria-Germany partnership now set to expand to 30 federal tertiary hospitals over the next three years, starting in 2026
As strike threats persist and reforms deepen, the flurry of activity underscores a clear message from the Ministry: dialogue, diplomacy and delivery remain central to keeping Nigeria’s health system afloat in 2026.
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