Acting national president of the Medical and Health Workers’ Union of Nigeria, Comrade Kabiru Minijibir, yesterday applauded President Bola Tinubu for approving the implementation of Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS) for health workers.
Minijibir who was speaking at the 49th National Executive Council meeting of the union in Abuja also urged the president to accede to other demands causing disaffection within the health sector in order to guarantee industrial harmony.
In July 2023, the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission reviewed the consolidated health salary structure, CONHESS, for health professionals including the payment of N25,000 accoutrement allowance to medical and dental doctors in the federal public service.
While commenting on the state of the nation, he lamented several challenges such as banditry, kidnapping, oil bunkering, illegal mining and agitation for secession from various parts of the country paralysing social and economic activities.
Also speaking, former president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Ayuba Wabba who commented on the fuel subsidy removal, said the only option open to the incumbent government was local production of crude in indigenous refineries, noting that the crisis would remain on ground irrespective of any interventions or palliatives.
He said the concept of democracy is to bring prosperity to the people, stressing that even the little interventions in terms of palliatives, have not been implemented effectively by the governors.
“As a union fighting for the cause of our members, we must build a strong financial base to be able to defend workers’ rights. What we see now in the world of work is a dissatisfied workforce, no worker can boast that his or her salary can last for 30 days. Democracy must bring prosperity to the people, talking about palliatives, not more than 10 percent of the governors are utilising the money effectively. I believe that there should be a template for the distribution of these palliatives,” Wabba said.
