- ‘We’ve kept our promise to avoid strike’
Health workers across the country have urged President Muhammadu Buhari to include the recent adjustment in the Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS) in the 2022 budget before passage.
The health workers said they were aware that N80 billion had been captured in the 2022 budget to cover the new salary structure, warning that any attempt to divert the money or change the course of event by the Federal Ministry of Health would be resisted.
The health workers include members of the National Leadership of Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) and Assembly of Healthcare Professional Associations (AHPA).
JOHESU Chairman Biobelemoye Josiah, who spoke yesterday on Africa Independent Television (AIT) breakfast programme, Kakaaki, warned that the unions would not be able to guarantee industrial harmony in the Health sector if the President fails to include the adjusted salary structure in the budget.
A seven-man committee set up by the Federal Ministry of Health had recommended an adjustment in the salaries of the nation’s health workers.
“We are expecting that Mr. President will do us well because as a union, we have yielded to his requests that we should keep the Health sector strike-free for the period. We have done our part. We expect that no matter the games, the Federal Ministry of Health is playing by trying to deny us our own right.
“The President has the power to direct that the committee’s job should be included in the budget before he signs it.
“I want to call on Nigerians to plead on our behalf because we have been very patient. We have been very patriotic and we will not want a situation where all the efforts we have put to ensure that there is peace in the Health sector go into waste. This is because if it is not put into next year’s budget, just a few days from now for us to go into next year, certainly, the Health sector will not be as peaceful as we have tried to keep it.
