Sadiya Lawal was among expectant mothers in Adamawa state who continue to decry the near collapse of antenatal care in public hospitals due to the strike action embarked upon by health workers in the state for nearly three weeks.
The situation has forced pregnant women to patronise private clinics, while others travel long distances for care in the state capital or neigbouring states. Some of the expectant mothers said the strike did expose them to life-threatening situations.
The immunization against polio, measles and other child killer diseases has, therefore, suffered a serious setback in the state owing to the refusal of vaccinators, supervisors, facilitators and community health educators to take part in the exercise due to the strike action.
Mrs Mary Aboki said she could not attend antenatal clinic due to the strike, “I don’t think I could attend to antenatal sessions due to this strike, because we don’t have money to go to private clinic,” she lamented.
The strike has continued to bite harder with patients in their hundreds continuing to besiege the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Yola and other private clinics (that are making brisk businesses) for medication as these hospitals are not admitting patients “who badly need care” because of pressure on bed space caused by an increase in demand from the unprecedented surge of patients.
It’s also pathetic that official records emanating from the North East zone of the Network of People Living with HIV-AIDS (NEPWAN) indicated that 90,000 newly infected persons in Adamawa state are currently on danger list for lack of access to retroviral drugs following the protracted strike in the state.
The figure which comprises tested pregnant women, women on delivery and those seeking various medical attention as a result of one ailment or the other in public hospitals as well as intending couples, are at the cross roads on where and how to access their drugs since public hospitals remain shut.
The Zonal Coordinator of the Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS, Mr Abraham Zinas, who revealed the pathetic situation to newsmen, said official records available to them have indicated that since the start of the strike for nearly six months by local government health workers, the newly infected persons could hardly access drugs.
In his words, “90,000 newly infected persons were discovered based on available records in most public hospitals across the state. These people are currently on danger list due to inability to access drugs caused by the ongoing strike in the state,’’
However, corroborating the situation on Friday while fielding questions from newsmen at a UNICEF event held at the Silver Hotel, Yola, the wife of the state governor and chairperson of the state Action Committee on HIV/AIDS (SACA) Dr Halima Nyako, assured that efforts were being made to end the labour dispute with a view to address the difficulties being experienced by the people living with the virus.
A visit to FMC –Yola on Friday, long queues were seen of hundreds of patients desperately wanting to see doctors while others were resorting to private hospitals due to non availability of beds.
Even before this general strike, since May, local government health workers have been on strike, following disagreement with the state government over pay rise.
The workers are demanding the implementation of the Harmonized Salary Structure for Health Workers (HATISS), enjoyed by other categories of health workers in the state.
A Game of witS
September 12, 2011 marked the beginning of a full-fledged strike by the state civil servants to press home the implementation of the N18,000.00 national minimum wage. The strike action brought government’s activities to a standstill, especially in hospitals.All other government activities were paralysed by the strike which made reconvention of the state Assembly last Monday impossible as its premises became inaccessible to lawmakers and the supporting staff.
Deadlock had ensued between the state governor, Murtala Nyako and the labour leaders with the latter accusing the governor of being insensitive to the plight of workers, while government continues to allege that the labour leaders were being used by the opposition to cause problems for the state government.
The government had rejected the unions’ demands for the full implementation of the new minimum wage and instead, presented a new Table for GL 01-07 increase structure. The workers on their part, rejected this as “strange and unacceptable” and called for a full scale strike and as a mark of solidarity, workers in the private sector including banks and petrol stations joined the strike, for alleged government failure to heed to the clarion call.
Addressing workers at the state labour house, the spokesman of the private workers and secretary of NUPENG, Comrade Abdul Hakim Dan Kishiya, said workers in the private sector had unanimously resolved to support the industrial action embarked upon by the civil servants in the state.
“As affiliate members, we are joining the strike 100 per cent as the government has failed to heed our advice. Government at all levels and the private sector must implement the minimum wage law and pay the wages as provided by the law,” Dan Kishiya said.
The state governor, Murtala Nyako, has on the one hand, threatened to invoke the “no work-no pay’’ policy over the ongoing strike, while the state lawmakers on the other hand, ordered the state government to withdraw its earlier circular on the structure of the minimum wage.
Governor Nyako, while receiving lower court judges in his office, had declared that the government’s decision to invoke the ‘’ no work no pay’’ policy was in line with the International Labour Organisation (ILO’s) laws.
However, the state lawmakers, during a plenary session on Wednesday, had asked the state government to withdraw the controversial circular it issued on the new minimum wage structure so as to pave way for negotiations between it and the organised labour. This followed the adoption of the interim report of the House Committee on Labour and Productivity mandated to mediate between labour leaders and the government.
The committee observed with dismay that the report of the committee constituted earlier by both the state government and organised labour on the new structure of the minimum wage was adversely substituted. After extensive deliberations, the Speaker, Ibrahim Sadik Dasin, directed the Clerk of the House to communicate to the government their resolutions in order to pave way for negotiation.
Governor Murtala Nyako had earlier, through his information commissioner, Abdurrahman Abba, accused the labour leaders and other opposition camps in the state of playing politics with the minimum wage issue, arguing that they could not sustain the payment, given the meager resources at their disposal, noting that the state government was very realistic on the issue of minimum wage.
The governor announced that the state received an average of N2 billion monthly from the Federation Account, while the administration would need about N4.8 billion to pay the minimum wage.”I am surprised that some opposition groups, particularly labour are playing politics with it. This is beyond politics. Let us not play politics with this issue. This is the issue that concerns the welfare of the state workers,’’ he said.
But when contacted on the allegation that labour leaders were being used by opposition politicians to cause problems for the state government, the state NLC chairman, Comrade Dauda Maina, said, “I will not comment on this because, you should expect it as government always says it whenever organised labour embarks on strike.”He averred that their demands must be resolved and agreed upon before the strike would be suspended. Thus, it is yet to be seen how Governor Nyako and labour leaders in the state are going to resolve the impasse this week, when all the warring factions are not ready to sheath their swords.
