FROM
Thursday, all the federal medical facilities in the country may be shut down as
crisis between the workers and Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu may
take a new turn. The health workers, under the auspices of Joint Health Sector
Unions (JOHESU) and Assembly of Healthcare Professional Associations (AHPA), have
continuously called on President Goodluck Jonathan to relieve the Minister of
the burden of administering health matters in the country, saying the
university don has demonstrated the lowest level of inefficiency ever seen in
Nigeria’s history of health delivery.
Indeed,
The Guardian learnt that their exclusion from boards might be seen by the
unionists as a slight on them and in equal measure, they have resolved to use
the strike action to force President Jonathan to remove Prof. Chukwu from
office.
A document
obtained by The Guardian and signed by the chairperson of JOHESU, Wabba Ayuba;
secretary, W.G. Yusuf-Bamus; chairperson of AHPA, Godswill Okara, was
unequivocal, saying, “we reiterate our call on Mr. President to relieve Prof.
Onyebuchi Chukwu of his appointment as the Minister of Health as he has failed
in all ramifications to bring about industrial peace and harmony in the health
ministry.”
Before
now, most presidents and general secretaries of unions in the health profession
got nominated into the boards of federal medical institutions.
Investigations
by The Guardian at the weekend indicated that no union leader has so far been
nominated into the recently announced board members.
Indeed,
the Chief Medical Director of Bida Federal Medical Centre had to call a union
member last week to help trace a board member that was supposedly nominated to
represent the interests of unions. As it turned out, this ‘member’ was unknown
to the union she was supposed to be representing.
The
Guardian also gathered that but for a meeting that was called at the instance
of House of Representatives Committee on Health, which has been fixed for
Thursday, the strike action would have been declared earlier than the Thursday
date.
A
source said in Abuja at the weekend: “It is unthinkable that a minister of
health will put together lists of board members for federal medical
institutions and no member is appointed from the union. How then would the
interests of workers be protected? We in the movement know that the minister
did this to spite us. But that will only strengthen our resolve to demand his
removal. Out of all the issues in dispute, not one has been resolved. We had
attended a meeting at the instance of Minister of Labour and Productivity,
Chukwuemeka Wogu, at which we agreed on a number of issues but weeks after that
meeting, nothing concrete has been achieved. The minister did nothing to
address all the issues at stake.”
The
unions had on March 13, 2013, issued a 15-day ultimatum to the Federal Ministry
of Health to implement the May 10, 2012 collective agreement but had to shelve
going on industrial action after the Minister of Labour and Productivity
intervened.
Afterwards,
at a meeting at the instance of Wogu, a memorandum of understanding was reached
between the warring parties. The memorandum provided a six-week timeframe
effective March 21, 2013 within which all outstanding issues in dispute would
be addressed.
The
issues in dispute are: implementation of the Justice Bello Abdullahi
Presidential Committee report on harmony in the health sector; promotion of
health professionals from CONHESS 14 to 15 in line with their respective
schemes of service; implementation of the 2008 Job Evaluation Committee report;
review of retirement age of healthcare professionals in teaching and research
institutes to be at par with their counterparts in the university system;
re-composition of the boards of management of tertiary health institutions to
ensure equitable representation of health professional associations and
registered trade unions
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