There was pandemonium at the Ministry of Health headquarters
in Abuja on Thursday as nurses numbering over 200 staged a protest over alleged
bad practices in the nation’s health sector.
The protesters under the aegis of National Association of
Nigerian Nurses and Midwives demanded, among other things, a forensic review of
the activities of the Health Ministry to restore sanity in the system.
The protesters included nurses in federal teaching
hospitals, federal medical centres and federal specialist hospitals in the
country.
Shortly after the protest commenced, the Minister of Health,
Prof. Isaac Adewole, arrived his office but the nurses attempted to stop him
from entering the building.
But their plan was resisted by security operatives who
hurriedly whisked him away from the vicinity.
The leader of the protesters and chairman, NANNW (Federal
Health Institutions Sector), Wale Olatunde, called on the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and
Other-Related Offences Commission to beam their searchlight on the health
sector “as was the case with the Nigerian judges on the bench.”
He said the anti-corruption agencies should probe how
budgetary allocations and internally-generated revenues were expended.
He said, “Individuals who benefit from incessant crisis in
the health sector should not be allowed to continue to hold the health sector
and the good people of this country to ransom. A ministry that could harbour
fake doctor for eight years and who incidentally was a leading figure in the
fight against Ebola Virus Disease and other hemorrhage fevers calls for a
forensic review of their activities.”
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