Workers’ strike disrupts children health programmes in Bayelsa

THE strike embarked upon by local government areas in
Bayelsa State over the non-payment of salary arrears has
hampered the medical outreach programme of the United
Nations Children’s Fund in the state.
The UNICEF team was in the state last for the
rescheduled second round of the Maternal Newborn and
Child Health Week.
The second round of MNCHW was held nationwide from
December 4 to December 10, 2015, but did not hold in
Bayelsa State due to the governorship election that took
place in the state on December 5, last year.
The exercise monitored by Southern City News in some
remote villages indicated that many government-owned
health facilities were under lock and key, while a few
others that were opened lacked adequate health workers
to complement UNICEF team to administer services to
the people.
In declaring the week-long event open, the Permanent
Secretary, Bayelsa State Ministry of Health, Dr. Kojo
Omietimi, had said the bi-annual exercise was designed
to deliver an integrated package of cost-effective high
impact preventive and curative health interventions.
The permanent secretary also said that the event was to
feature Vitamins A supplementation for children; tests for
pregnant women and women of child-bearing age, iron-
foliate supplement for pregnant women, de-worming of
children, screening for malnutrition, birth registration and
HIV counseling and testing.
At Basic Health Centre, Tumgbo community in Sagbama
Local Government Area of the state, few health officers,
who were on ground, lamented the lack of logistics to
mobilise staff for the exercise.
The head of the centre, Mrs. Ebi Pateme, said, “Are you
not aware that local government workers have not been
paid for the past six months? We are coming to work
because of the nature of our job?
“LG workers in other departments are on strike.
Government did not give us any logistics for the MNCHW
exercise. All we need now is our salaries so that we can
discharge our duties effectively.”
An immunization officer in Sagbama LGA, Mr. Barazi
David, said the distribution of materials for the exercise
started late due to logistics problems.
He, however, noted that with logistics support and UNICEF
materials were able to get to all 27 health facilities in the
area, adding that attendance was encouraging.
“Our major challenge is the problem of logistics, but we
really commend UNICEF for providing us with some
incentives that contributed to the success of this
programme,” David noted.
In his remarks, the Head of Department, Health, Sagbama
LGA, Mr. Taribidei Tonkiri, attributed the low turn-out
recorded during the event to the low morale of workers
due to the non-payment of salaries for months.
The HOD, who spoke from the headquarters of the council,
which was locked by the striking workers, said the
exercise did not meet its expectation as a result of
logistics bottlenecks.
He advised the federal, state and local governments to
ensure that all arrears owed LG workers were cleared to
boost the morale of workers.
  Culled from the punch