By Chioma Obinna

Medical and dental academics at the University of Lagos, under the aegis of the National Association of Medical and Dental Academics, have demanded full implementation of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure, CONMESS, insisting that the refusal of the university management to comply with Federal Government directives has deepened the crisis in medical education and healthcare manpower development in Nigeria.

The academics, operating under the NAMDA-UNILAG chapter, declared that their ongoing industrial action was driven by the need for equity in pay and better welfare for medical and dental lecturers who train future doctors and dentists across the country.

Speaking during a press briefing on Wednesday at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, the President of NAMDA-UNILAG, Omotayo Andrew Ogburo, said the association was not demanding salary increments but equal treatment with counterparts in other federal universities already benefiting from the CONMESS salary structure.

“We are not asking for an increase in salary. What we are asking is for equity in pay. Pay us what our colleagues in Ibadan, Ife, and other universities are receiving,” he said.

Ogburo explained that the association was established to address critical challenges affecting the training of medical and dental professionals in Nigeria and currently has chapters in nearly all universities where medicine and dentistry are taught.

According to him, worsening brain drain in Nigeria’s health sector has left universities struggling to retain qualified academics as doctors continue to migrate abroad or leave academia for better-paying clinical positions.
He said the introduction of CONMESS by the Federal Government was originally intended to retain doctors in the country, but medical and dental academics in universities who train these doctors were excluded from the improved salary structure.

“The pay for the doctors being trained was increased, but that increase did not affect their trainers. That led to a distortion,” he stated.

He warned that the disparity has discouraged younger doctors from pursuing academic careers while several experienced professors have resigned from university teaching positions because of poor remuneration.
Citing a recent recruitment exercise at the University of Nigeria, Ogburo disclosed that some successful applicants collected appointment letters but declined to resume because of the poor salary structure in academia.

“If somebody is earning ₦200,000 somewhere as a doctor working clinically, I cannot bring that person into a system where they will earn ₦100,000. That is a great disincentive,” he said.

He further warned that the Federal Government’s recent increase in admission quotas for medical and dental students had placed enormous pressure on the few remaining academics in universities, thereby threatening the quality of medical training.
“This has resulted in the decline in the quality of products of the medical schools,” he warned.

Ogburo expressed concern that foundational medical science departments such as Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry, Pharmacology, and Microbiology are increasingly being staffed by non-medically qualified personnel because trained medical professionals are no longer interested in academic careers.

“Ideally, microbiology should be taught by medically qualified personnel who have specialised in microbiology. But because of poor pay, none of our colleagues are willing to take such positions.”

He added that many clinical departments in universities are now dominated by ageing professors because younger doctors are unwilling to enter academia.

“In some departments, you have up to ten professors, and all of them are above 50 years because younger ones have refused to come into medical academia,” he added.
Speaking on the situation at the University of Lagos, Ogburo accused the institution of failing to implement CONMESS despite repeated appeals, engagements, and official circulars authorising implementation in federal universities.

He disclosed that NAMDA-UNILAG commenced industrial action on May 18, 2026, after exhausting all legal and diplomatic avenues.

“We have tried everything legally, informally and formally. We sent letters demanding meetings. We sent demand notices. We sent management ultimatum. But management did not accept our demands, and the negotiations broke down,” he said.

Among the demands of the association are full implementation of CONMESS for all medical and dental academics, including those above 65 years, payment of arrears dating back to July 2024, implementation of the Consolidated Academic Tools Allowance, CATA, payment of professional allowance, and adoption of the enhanced CONMESS salary scale approved by the Federal Government.

Ogburo criticised the exclusion of academics above 65 years from the salary implementation, describing the development as unjust.

“You have people who trained younger colleagues now earning less than those they trained. That is injustice,” he said.

He also accused the university management of placing newly employed medical and dental academics on salary structures different from the approved CONMESS scale and condemned the use of titles such as “Distinguished Consultant Grade One” and “Distinguished Senior Consultant,” which he said are unknown to the Federal Civil Service structure.

“I was employed as Professor of Surgery, and now I am being called Distinguished Consultant Grade One. There is no designation like that in the Federal Civil Service,” he stated.

The NAMDA president maintained that the strike became inevitable after repeated negotiations allegedly ended without signed agreements or concrete resolutions.

“If it was positive, I would not be talking to you as a doctor today. What we got were promises — give us three weeks, give us one month — but no concrete agreement,” he said.
While expressing concern over the impact of the strike on students, Ogburo appealed to the public, media, and relevant stakeholders to intervene urgently.

“The medical and dental students are our children. We do not want them to suffer or experience disruptions in their academic calendar. But we are asking for justice and equity,” he said.

He assured that the strike would be suspended immediately once an agreement is reached with the university management.
“If we get an agreement today, we will call off the strike tomorrow.”