04042019 - Nigeria 7 other nstions home to world's hungriest - UN

Vanguard, THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2019—37
08052202308 (sms only)
Workers reject private sector takeover of
public healthcare system
•As MHWUN re-elects Biobelemoye President
Stories by Victor Young
FEW days ago, members of
Medical and Health Workers
Union of Nigeria,
MHWUN, through their delegates
across the country,
gathered in Abuja, the Federal
Capital Territory, for the 10th
National Delegates' Conference,
NDC, to take stocks on
the state of the union in the
past four years.
One of the high points of the
conference was the re-election
of Josiah Biobelemoye, as
president of the union for the
second term of four years.
He was unanimously reelected
by the members
alongside 25 other national
officers.
Accepting the new challenge,
Biobelemoye pledged
to move the union to a greater
height, and also to pursue
only the needs and legitimate
aspirations of members, while
galvanizing all the resources
and efforts to move the union
to the next level.
No to privatisation
Earlier, addressing guests
and delegates, Biobelemoya
said: “The nose-diving
healthcare delivery system has
deteriorated to the extent that
it is embarrassing to look with
nostalgia how Nigeria was
once the hub of healthcare
where neighbouring countries
once considered the Mecca for
health pilgrimage. What obtains
at the moment is massive
health tourism of those who
can afford better healthcare
delivery outside the shores of
this country.
“This embarrassing state of
the once celebrated health sector
has been bedeviled by poor
management that the country
is witnessing high level of
brain drain of personnel to
other countries where the environment
of operation is attractive.
Many factors have
conspired to cast a very
gloomy and dark cloud on the
horizon in the Nigerian health
care delivery system, prominent
among which is the attempt
by government to lean
towards the policy of the capitalist
west to privatise health
institutions, especially Tertiary
Health Institutions.
“The privatisation train has
made efforts to justify its implementation
by insisting that
privatisation, Public Private
Partnership, PPP, and all its
corollaries in commercialisation
and concessioning as well
as outsourcing, are necessary
to curb incessant strikes in the
health sector which they erroneously
believe remains the
*President of Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria, MHWUN, Josiah Biobelemoye,
President of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Ayuba Wabba, and another member of the
union at the conference
bane of good health care delivery
in Nigeria. If the business
of government is to provide
for security and the welfare
and well being of its
citizenry, then privatisation of
the health industry as being
saliently canvassed by the
managers of the health systems
in Nigeria, would not
provide the answer.”
Destruction of health system
Biobelemoye advised
President Muhammadu
Buhari to look beyond medical
doctors and appoint
technocrats in health
administration as Ministers of
Health in his second tenure.
According to him: “What has
destroyed the health system in
Nigeria is the government’s
mistake of handing over the
management of the health
system to a powerful minority
of the health team to the exclusion
of the large majority of the
team members. When a Minister
of Health, Minister of State
for Health and until recently,
Permanent Secretary of Health
and almost all departments are
managed by one profession to
the exclusion of other professionals
in the health care delivery
system, there can be no
FG assures of decent work environment
THE Federal Government
has pledged continuous
promotion of decent work environment
in line with the
provisions of the International
Labour Organisation, ILO.
The Permanent Secretary,
Ministry of Labour and Employment,
William Alo, stated
this in Abuja when he received
the National Women Commission
of the Nigeria Labour
Congress, NLC, led by Mercy
Okezie, on an advocacy visit
to the Ministry on the adoption
of the ILO Convention on
harmony; turbulence and inefficiency
shall continue to thrive.
“As an immediate action to put
confidence into Nigerians, the
appointment of Ministers of
Health must not necessarily be
to only health professionals to
halt politics of exclusion that has
taken tap roots in the ministry.
We believe the appointment of
non-health professionals as
ministers, or the mixing of
appointments of both doctors
and other health professionals
as ministers will boost the confidence
of stakeholders that this
present administration has come
to terms with the problems of the
sector and is determined to proffer
solutions to them.
“In the long run, we advise the
revitalisation of the healthcare
delivery system by returning the
management of health
institutions to hospital
administrators who have not only
been trained for such functions
but also possess the professional
attitude to manage these
institutions without fear or favour
of any professional group.”
Widening inequality
Declaring the conference open,
President of Nigeria Labour
Congress, NLC, Ayuba Wabba,
faulted Federal Government's
Violence and Harassment in
the World of Work.
He said Nigeria had always
eschewed all forms of discrimination
and negative attitudes
in the work place, with adequate
laws forestalling such
practices, and had always
keyed into the ILO provisions.
According to him: “Nigeria
is ready, willing and determined
to show more commitment
to making the work environment
conducive for every
Nigerian worker. If the work
environment is conducive,
plans to reduce the salaries of
certain categories of public
workers, insisting that it was the
bogus pay package of the
political class that should be
reduced.
He lamented that the “inequality
gap between the rich and the
poor in Nigerians is getting
expanded. Whereas in other
countries, it is the rich that
subsidise for the poor but in our
case, it is the poor that subsidise
for the rich. Every month before
we are paid, our salary is
deducted and we pay the commensurate
tax. What is central is
for our system to bring about
equity and fairness.
“When I hear them say that
they will review the salary of
workers that are earning high,
the right thing to do is to review
the bogus salaries of politicians
so that we can be at the same
level. In other climes, the
increase of salary to all classes of
workers in the society is done
based on certain indices, either
inflation or cost of living index.
If you are increasing the salary
of political office holders, you
must also look at the same percentage
for the salary of workers.
We generate the wealth of
our nation and must be partakers
of the wealth we create.”
friendly, accommodating and
protective, it brings peace, love
and understanding. So, the
advocacy is timely because we
need to do more.”
He pledged the commitment
of government to supporting
the ILO Convention on Stopping
Gender-based Violence
and Harassment of Women
and Men in the World of Work,
emphasizing the relationship
between an enabling work
environment, productivity,
and economic growth.
NUPENG
confirms Afolabi
Gen-Sec, names
3 dep scribes
NIGERIA Union of
Petroleum and Natural Gas
Workers, NUPENG, has confirmed
Olawale Afolabi as its substantive
General Secretary with
immediate effect, having acted
for three months.
This came as it equally elevated
three of its Principal General
Secretaries to Deputy General
Secretaries effective April 1, 2019.
They are Otite Precious
Onohwohwo, Deputy General
Secretary (Operations), Anthony
Chukwu, Deputy General Secretary
(Finance/Accounts) and
Christopher Akpede, Deputy
General Secretary
(Administration).
A statement by the union's President,
Williams Akporeha, said
Afolabi confirmation and promotions
of Onohwohwo, Chukwu
and Akpede, were done by the
National Administrative Council,
NAC, of the Union.
According to the statement,
"Afolabi is a seasoned unionist
and technocrat who has been in
active service for over two decades
in NUPENG, in the areas of
management, training/education,
alternative dispute resolution,
and negotiations. He is very
replete with the creation, development
and launch of existing viable
operations with robust, deep
and ingenious ideas.
"His skills in Industrial Relations,
general management and
organizational development were
acquired and nurtured over the
years in various roles since he
pitched tent with NUPENG,
where he spent bulk of his career.
Before this latest milestone in the
Union, Afolabi was diligent in handling
the Education and Training
of the rank and file of the Union
and was a founding member of
Nigerian Labour Movement
Educators Forum. Also to his
credit, many Union leaders and
branch officials cut their trade
union teeth through his numerous
training and workshops."
The statement added that "there
is no doubt absolutely that these
men will bring their wealth of
experiences and knowledge to
bear in these new tasks."
*Olawale Afolabi, now
NUPENG' s substantive General
Secretary.