The Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN) has appealed to the Kogi state government for the recruitment of health workers into the various hospitals and primary health care centres in the state to ameliorate the acute shortage of manpower in the health sector.
The Chairman of the Kogi State Chapter of MHWUN, Comrade Amari Gabriel, made the appeal on Wednesday in Lokoja during the 8th Quadrennial State Delegate Conference of the union with the theme “Towards Strengthening Trade Unions for Development.”
He said most hospitals in the state have suffered the dirt of medical health workers, lamenting that some primary health centres in the school cannot boast of two or more staff to attend to the health needs of the people at the grassroots.
The chairman of the union, who also seeks the harmonisation of health workers’ salaries to end disparity in the salaries of the state health workers, said a situation where health workers at the same level earn different salaries does not speak well for the union.
While appealing to the state government for the harmonisation of health workers’ salaries in the state, the union leader urged the government to set up an implementation committee for the seventy thousand naira national minimum wage without further delay.
He solicited the training and retraining of health workers through workshops to update their knowledge with current global practices and seek the domestication of the approved five-year extension of health workers as endorsed by the council of the establishment.
The national president of the union, Dr Kabiru Ado Sani, in his speech, charged the leadership of the union at the state councils to embrace the spirit of accountability, probity, and quality service to members in order to move the union to a greater height.
Dr Ado Sani, who was represented by Adeka Abdullahi, the returning officer of the conference, warned that the national leadership of the union would not hesitate to take drastic actions against any state council that indulged in actions that would smear the good image of the union, noting that the national body is committed to rewarding state councils that distinguished themselves in the service of the union.
The national president therefore urged the new executive of Kogi State Council, MHWUN, to carry along members of the union in the discharge of their duties.
Kogi state governor, Ahmed Usman Ododo, who declared the conference open, said his administration since its inception has been workers-friendly, assuring that the government would continue to prioritise the welfare of workers and other citizens in the state.
Represented by the Special Adviser to the state governor on labour matters, Comrade Onuh Edoka promised to look into all the demands of the union.
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