•NLC threatens showdown next week
From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Nurses and teachers in the FCT under the umbrella of National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM) and Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) took a joint mass action yesterday to protest non-implementation of N70, 000 minimum wage and other allowances, as well as poor working conditions and several other issues.
In their large numbers, armed with placards with different inscriptions, the teachers and nurses gathered at the headquarters of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) otherwise known as Labour House, as early as possible for the peaceful street protest that ended at the FCT Minister’s Office at Garki, Abuja, where a protest letter was presented to officials of the FCT Administration.
Speaking to journalists at the protest ground, the Chairman of NANNM, FCT Chapter, Jama Medan, lamented the prolonged neglect of the FCT healthcare facilities particularly the Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs), as well as nurses’ working conditions and welfare.
He said: “We have about 270 PHCs in FCT that are serviced by a very poor number of healthcare workers, about 120 nurse/midwives attending to thousands of patients that visit PHCs in the FCT.
“Sadly, these PHCs have been closed down for over a month due to protest by healthcare workers, and nobody is saying anything about it. Women and children are dying because the health facilities have been locked down for over a month without anything. We are here for this protest because we have issues of gross shortage of manpower at the area councils, unpaid allowances, non implementation of minimum wage, and others.”
He accused the Area Councils’ Chairmen of deliberately withholding the funds recently released by the FCT Administration for the purposes of offsetting the arrears of allowances. “The Minister intervened on this matter. But despite the intervention and the release of over N4.1billion, the Councils chairmen have refused to pay and had allegedly diverted the money for their personal use.
“We are here for this protest because nurses and other health workers put their lives on the line, yet their hazard allowances are not paid. Nurses are entitled to other allowances, including uniform allowances, but yet not paid. The Area Councils’ chairman in FCT has decided not to listen to anybody.”
The NANNM leader demanded that the FCT Administration take urgent steps to fix the challenges, by first compelling the Area Councils chairmen to offset the bills, and also take realistic measures to improve the infrastructures and working conditions of health professionals in their various councils.
Abdullahi Muhammad Shefa, Chairman, NUT FCT Wing, Abuja, also told journalists at the protest ground that Area Councils chairmen in FCT are frustrating the efforts of the FCT Administration to improve the health and education sectors in the FCT.
He said: “Today, we are taking our protest to the office of the FCT Minister to inform him that the money he released, about N4.1bn, for the teachers and nurses has gone under the bridge, that water has taken it away. So, he should look for ways of paying us that money.
“Since the last two years, we have been battling on the rights of our members. These rights are legitimate rights. They are not just privileged. They are rights meant for our members. But what we have in return is playing down to workers at the Area Councils, which is not supposed to be.
“In most cases, we have pushed for demands of this sort, ranging from the implementation of the new minimum wage. That was long before the minimum wage act. It is not just a minimum wage that if any government feels, it can implement it. It’s legally backed by the law of the National Assembly. But yet, our Area Councils chairmen refused to give us this money. We observed that teachers are now being used to settling personal issues, and it can’t continue to be so.”
Meanwhile, the NLC President, Joe Ajaero, who addressed the aggrieved workers before the protest, assured them of maximum support of the NLC in the fight for better health and education sectors.
He threatened to mobilize the entire structure of the NLC against the FCT Administration by next week if the Minister fails to compel his Area Councils chairmen to act on the pending issues.
“This rally is not the main action, but a sign of what will happen next if the relevant authorities fail to do the needful. I assure you of the solidarity of all Nigerian workers in the fight for better and improved welfare and working conditions,” he added.