Alleged incompetence: Ebonyi health workers call
for minister’s sack
by ALIUNA GODWIN on Aug 26, 2013 |
Posted under National Mirror News paper
Health workers in Ebonyi State have called for
the immediate sack of the Minister of Health,
Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, over incompetence.
The call followed the allegation that the minister
had been playing politics with the health of
Nigerians.
The workers claimed that the since the Chukwu
was appointed minister, there had been troubles
and conflicts in the health sector.
The health workers recalled that Prof Chukwu
was sacked as the Chief Medical Director of the
Ebonyi State Teaching Hospital by Governor
Martin Elechi as a result of his incompetency.
They, however, urged President Goodluck
Jonathan to sack Chukwu for the same reason to
“avoid further damage to the health sector.”
Addressing journalists at a press conference in
Abakaliki, Chairman, Medical and Health
Workers’ Union of Nigeria (MHWUN), Ebonyi
State chapter, Mr. Ikechukwu Nwafor, said no
amount of intimidation, threats or blackmail
would stop the union from suspending its
ongoing strike.
Nwafor said the strike would only be called off
when the demand of the health workers is met.
He said: “Health is an issue that concerns all
Nigerians, it cannot be politicised and as a
matter of facts, we are beginning to believe that
the appointment of Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu as
the Minister of Health was done in error because
since his appointment, there have been troubles
and conflicts in the health sector.
“That is why we are asking that President
Goodlock Jonathan should remove him to avoid
more problems in the sector or else the votes of
Nigerians who need a good health will count
even against the President.”
Nwafor, however recalled that when Prof Chukwu
was the Ebonyi State Teaching Hospital CMD, the
state government sacked him. Then, the union
pleaded on his behalf and criticised the
government for sacking him the way it did.
“Even the day health worker, including Chukwu,
went to meet with Elechi, the governor openly
accused him of mismanaging workers’ salaries.
Chairman of Nigeria Union of Allied Health
Professionals, Mr. Obiefuna Okeke, alleged that
health workers were being maltreated across the
country.
Okeke said that everybody in health sector,
including guards and cleaners, are important in
the hospital and should be treated like doctors.
Obiefuna said members of the union were
committed to the strike and would stay at home
for as long as it took the government to
implement the earlier agreement.

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