Nurses under the aegis of University Graduates of Nursing Science Association has replied a retired Deputy Director of Health of Akwa Ibom State, Comrade Idoboise Nkanta, who said that nurses should not be allowed to work at Primary Health Centres (PHCs) and who described the presence of nurses at the PHCs as “Professional Banditry”.

In response to Comrade Nkata who had asserted that the Community Health Extension Workers (CHEWS) are authorized by law to prescribe drugs and treat illness like the Medical Doctors, UGONSA lamented that it was unfortunate that Nkanta, who is a CHEW tutor and a senior member of the CHEW community, choose to elevate idiocy to a ridiculous level.

In a statement by its National President and Ag. National Secretary, Chief (Hon) S.E.O. Egwuenu and Nurse P.O. Eteng, UGONSA said that Comrade Nkata as a CHEW tutor has unwittingly revealed that what they teach the CHEWs is that they are Medical Doctors of the “Communities” who are authorized by the law to prescribe and treat.

“No wonder the CHEWs are acting with impunity doing the work of the Nurses, the work of Pharmacists, the work of Medical Laboratory Scientists, the work of the Optometrists, the work of the Radiographers and the work of Medical Doctors, including doing surgeries, and in the process butchering Nigerians and sending many to an untimely grave”.

“In a saner society by now Comrade Nkata would have been behind bars for owing-up and admitting to the atrocities they have been carrying out against the health of the Nigerian public through illegal prescriptions and treatments”.

“All over the world, there is no place the Community Health Extension Workers is counted among the healthcare providers or allowed to do the work of the healthcare providers. But in Nigeria, the likes of Nkata is bold to write in the print media that CHEWs are empowered by the law to “prescribe and treat” and that the nurses are “professional bandits” who should not be allowed near their own home, the Primary Healthcare System.

“Globally, nursing is the cornerstone and heartbeat of the healthcare delivery system be it primary, secondary or tertiary healthcare delivery system. Nurses are not only among the frontline healthcare providers but are the central coordinating element of care that organizes the health system and other healthcare providers for efficient and effective care delivery such that if the healthcare delivery system is likened to a home, nurses would be said to be the mothers of the healthcare delivery system.

“All over the world, nurses do not need an introduction in the healthcare delivery system for people to understand who they are or what they do. It is the CHEWs that need an introduction because they are strangers in the healthcare delivery system who out of banditry are venturing into niches that were never meant for them in the Nigerian health system doing the work of the main healthcare providers which they never received training or license for.

“The World Health Organization (WHO) succinctly spelled out the role of the Community Health Workers like the CHEWs as “creating liaison (connections) between vulnerable populations and healthcare providers”. Unfortunately, it is only in Nigeria that the CHEW has abandoned their primary role as a “liaison” between vulnerable populations and the healthcare providers to become the healthcare providers themselves with the brazen impetus of calling nurses (the central coordinating healthcare providers) bandits in their own home (the healthcare delivery system).
UGONSA noted that prior to the invasion by the CHEWS, the Nigerian health system was ranked among the best in the world such that the Saudi Royal family sought treatment from the Nigerian Health System.

“Today the once-booming Nigerian Health system is in shamble because interlopers like the CHEWS have usurped the position of nurses by abandoning their roles as “liaison officers” for nursing practice which they never received education for, trained for, or licensed to practice.
“Ironically it is not only nursing practice that they have invaded. They have also invaded the roles of the Nigerian Medical Doctors who created them to spite the nurses.

“Today, the CHEWs do not only prescribe and treat as confessed by Nkata but also carryout surgical operations. Not recognizing any professional boundary they also intrude on the roles other healthcare professions such as Pharmacy, Medical Laboratory Science, Optometry, and so on.
“The reason, why they engage in this Professional banditry with audacity, is not far-fetch. Their tutors in the likes of Comrade Nkata teach them not only that they are superior to Nurses but that they are all the healthcare providers rolled into one who can render all the healthcare services such as diagnosis, prescription, treatment, nursing care, drug dispensary and so on.

“Alas, in the communities, they are now the Surgeon, the Physician, the Nurse, the Pharmacist, the Lab Scientist, the Radiographer, and the Optometrist all rolled in one such that they now wish that nurses are ostracized from the health system to the extent of having the effrontery to describe the presence of Nurses in the healthcare system as “professional banditry”.

UGONSA said that Nkata’s revelation of the decimation by the CHEWs of professional boundaries of healthcare delivery of the Nigerian health system is a wake-up call for the overhaul of the entire health system in line with international best practices. The association called on the Federal Ministry of Health to as a matter of urgency retrieve from the CHEWS the standing orders which they have misconstrued and mischaracterized as authority to “prescribe & treat” and which they now use as a free ticket to butcher life out of Nigerians via mismanagement of medico-nursing procedures they were not trained or licensed to perform.

“It is time to overhaul the Primary Healthcare system of Nigeria to operate in line with international best standard where Community Health Workers are liaisons between the vulnerable populations and the healthcare providers and not the healthcare providers themselves as the CHEWs arrogate to be in Nigeria” – the statement said.

Nurses under the aegis of University Graduates of Nursing Science Association (UGONSA) have decried the continued incarceration of their members over the alleged murder of former Head, Nursing Services, Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital (FNHE), Enugu, Dr. Mrs. Maria Amadi, despite glaring evidence that showed that they had no hand in the death of the woman, especially as the armed robbers who robbed and shot her in the course of robbery, have not only confessed to the crime and recreated how they carried out the operation to the police, but have also been charged to court.

In a statement by the National President, Chief (Hon). S.E.O. Egwuenu, and Ag.National Secretary, Nurse P.O. Eteng, the association said it does not want to believe the story making the rounds that they are still in detention because Governor Ugwuanyi had influenced the Enugu State judiciary to deploy ‘judicial filibuster’ to keep them perpetually incarcerated, but is simply begging the Governor to release these innocent employees of the FNHE to their families having incarcerated them unjustly for 18 months now for a crime they never committed.

Recall that Late Nurse Maria Amadi was allegedly shot dead on Thursday, March 21, 2019, at Federal Housing Estate, Trans-Ekulu, Enugu and the incident led to the arrest and subsequent detention, the next day, of three of her colleagues at the Hospital, namely Mrs. Buzo-Maduka Ruth, Mr. Afam Ndu and Mrs. Achalla Stella, on the allegation that she said before her demise that she suspects people she does not get along with in her place of work to be behind the incident. While Mrs. Buzo-Maduka Ruth and Mr. Afam Ndu (who are nurses and members of UGONSA) are respectively the Principal and Vice-Principal of the School of Post-Basic Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing of the FNHE (School of Nursing), Mrs. Achalla Stella is a Principal Confidential Secretary in the Hospital.

The statement read, “we showed remarkable equanimity when our members were unjustly and hurriedly clamped into detention without any shred of evidence over the unfortunate murder of Late Nurse Maria Amadi. Because we were interested in getting real justice for the deceased and the entire nursing community we went all the way in urging those with useful information regarding the gruesome murder of the late nurse to come forth with such.”

“Fortunately, someone who had useful information, as per who the real culprits are, in the person of Evangelist Tochukwu Obiorah (alias Iko Nso) approached the association. Evangelist Tochukwu Obiorah is not an ordinary person in the Enugu State Security circle. As at the time of the unfortunate incident of the murder of Late Nurse Maria Amadi till now, he is the Assistant State Commander of Enugu State Neighborhood Watch. As a top-notch leader of Enugu State Neighborhood Watch, he does not only cover the Trans-Ekulu axis where Nurse Maria Amadi was murdered but is also the Chief Security Officer (CSO) of Ugboye and Ugbowa neighbourhood Watch in Abakpa-Nike, Enugu and has been a frontline Neighborhood Security Officer in Enugu State for the past 22 years.”

“The useful information provided by Evangelist Tochukwu Obiora led us to petition the Inspector General of police to launch a comprehensive investigation into the matter. A fresh investigation carried out by the Federal Anti-Robbery Squad, Force Criminal Investigation Department, Abuja, led to arrest of three suspected armed robbers that carried out the attack, namely, Chidiebere Ochi, Amandi Ekwo and Uchenna Onuora. The suspects did not only confessed to killing Dr. Mrs. Amadi in the course of robbing her but also recreated for the police how the incident happened.”

“Instructively, the killer armed robbers also made it very clear that nobody contracted them to kill Dr.Amadi and that they do not know any of the FNHE employees who were unjustly accused and arrested over the death of the woman.”

“Following this, the armed robber suspects who shot and killed her were charged to court vide the charge No E/333C/2019, filed against them, before an Enugu High Court, signed by Mr. Celestine Odo, a Superintendent of Police, attached to the Legal/Prosecution Section, Force CID. They were alleged to have committed “armed robbery and murder punishable under Section 1, (2) (a) and (b) of the Robbery and Firearms (Special Provisions) Act, Cap. R11, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2010 and Section 274(1) of the Criminal Code.”

Particulars of the offence as contained in the charge read: “Chidiebere Ochi ‘m’, Amandi Ekwo ‘m’ a.k.a. “Pharaoh”, Uchenna Onuora ‘m’ a.k.a. “Amigo” and others now at large on or about the 21st March 2019 at about 1700hrs, at No. 38 Enugu-Ezike Street, Federal Housing Estate, Trans-Ekulu, Enugu, within the Enugu judicial division, while armed with two pistols loaded with ammunitions did rob one late Dr. (Mrs) Maria Amadi of her mobile phone, value yet unknown and an undisclosed sum of money and at the time of the robbery shot her at the lower abdomen and upper thighs. In the count 2, they were said to have committed murder punishable under Section 274(1) of the Criminal Code Cap. 30 Laws of Enugu State of Nigeria, 2004.”

“Furthermore, an interim police investigation report signed by CP Olafimihan Adeoye, Commissioner of Police, FSARS, Force CID, recommended that the case of criminal conspiracy and murder that was charged to court by the State Criminal Investigation Department, (SCID) Enugu State Command against Mrs. Buzo-Maduka Ruth, Mr. Afam Ndu, and Mrs. Achara Stella should be withdrawn from the court.”

“Besides this, the National Human Right Commission (NHRC) after examining the substance of the case, in its letter to the Chief Judge of Enugu State Judiciary, Ref.No.NHRC/ABS/2019/056 dated January 14, 2020 described as “an aberration of justice” the continued incarceration of Mrs. Buzo-Maduka Ruth, Mr. Afam Ndu, and Mrs. Achara Stella over the same murder of Late Nurse Maria Amadi which the police found and clearly stated they were not involved and for which the apprehended armed robber suspects that confessed to the crime have been charged to court.”

“We have heard many things about this case including how Governor Ugwuanyi has tied the hands of the Enugu State Chief Judge and that of Attorney-General of Enugu State over this case such that our members will languish in perpetuity in jail and will never come out alive to resume their duties as the Principal and Vice-Principal of the School of Nursing. While we do not want to cling on rumours, we respectfully demand from Governor Ugwuanyi and the Chief Judge of Enugu State to tell the general public why these innocent employees of the FHNE are still unjustly incarcerated despite mounting and formidable evidence that shows that they have no hand in the death of Nurse Amadi.”

“While we humbly beg the Governor of Enugu State, His Excellency Rt. Hon. Lawrence Ifeanyichukwu Ugwuanyi, for the umpteenth time to forthwith release our members and the other employee of the FNHE that are unjustly incarcerated by the Enugu State government, we want to make it abundantly clear that we shall squarely hold him accountable should anything untoward happen to them while in this inexplicable, unjust and unwarranted incarceration for a crime they never committed” – the statement concluded.

Nurses under the aegis of University Graduates of Nursing Science Association (UGONSA) have saluted the World Health Organisation (WHO) and countries of the world for their efforts so far on COVID-19 and specially thanked the citizens of the world for their great sacrifices in accepting to shutter their means of livelihood and giving-up some of their fundamental human rights and usual activities of daily living (ADL) in compliance with governments stay-at-home order made to contain the spread of coronavirus, the virus that causes COVID-19.

In its nursing week message signed by its National President, Chief (Hon) S.E.O Egwuenu and Ag. National Secretary, Nurse P.O. Eteng, the association worried that despite lockdowns, number of cases is still flaring-up and gave advice on additional measures it believed will make a great difference if added to the ongoing measures adopted for the fight against the disease.

It said, “when countries started a massive shut down of their economies in February and March 2020, the hope was that within two weeks, or at most one month, the spread of the virus would be contained since the incubation period of the novel coronavirus is between 2 and 14 days.

“But a look at the more credible data coming from the US and Europe show that the rate of infection and deaths are still on the high side even as, perhaps out of lockdown fatigue and biting hardships, economies have started to be reopened.

“The U.S. for example just had its deadliest day from the virus so far on May 1, 2020 recording 2,909 deaths according to CNBC news (of May 2nd, 2020) at a time when the country just started reopening parts of its economy and easing stay-at-home order. The toll of this deadliest day of COVID-19 so far witnessed in the U.S. rivals that of September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which claimed the lives of 2,973 people in one day, according to a government commission report cited by the CNBC news, yet nobody can for certain predict what holds for future contagions and fatalities from the virus.

“The questions that should agitate our minds are, why is the virus still spreading ferociously despite widespread lockdowns and social distancing practiced for months? If it was still spreading vigorously with strict restrictions of lockdown and social distancing what will the picture be when restrictions are lessened or removed?

“Being a professional association of nurses, the frontline healthcare workers that have the most personal round-the-clock close contact with patients, including the COVID-19 patients, we have observed that despite that nurses could not afford to maintain social distance with confirmed COVID-19 patients as they must come to a very close range of the patients to care for them, the rate of infections among nurses is still lower than that of the general population that practiced social distancing probably due to some things which may be more potent than social distancing that is more common on the nurses' side than they are with the general population which we believe if made universally abundant to the general population might make them be more elusive to the virus as the nurses.

“As the pandemic panned out, some world-power countries which many other countries were looking-up to for strategies and guidelines such as the US, France, and Britain focused more attention on producing and stock-piling ventilators to the extent that the U.S. for example, invoked its Defense Production Act to force automobile companies to start producing ventilators. This action subtly made some countries that were looking up to the U.S. for strategies to adopt in the fight against COVID-19 to assume that having ventilators was the ultimate solution to the problem hence the frenzy with which many countries were falling over each other to get hold of ventilators as if ventilator was the COVID-19 messiah.

“As enormous energy was focused on producing and acquiring ventilators, groceries and markets were allowed to run severely dry of basic hygiene items such as disinfectant wipes, toiletries and alcohol-based hand sanitizers and no Defense Production Act was invoked to produce them in an abundant quantity to balance the need for their increased usage orchestrated by COVID-19.

“As stimulus packages were legislated upon, nobody deemed it fit to legislate on making it compulsory for basic hygiene items to be available to all the people all the time while the COVID-19 crisis lasts.

“While so much campaign was made in preaching the practice of basic hygiene especially hand hygiene, the capacity for people to effectively do so was not concomitantly enhanced thereby allowing severe scarcity of basic hygiene items to create a weak link in the chain of preventive measures that the virus maneuvered through to continue to spread.

“When contrasted with the situation for nurses who, despite very close round-the-clock personal contacts with the victims of COVID-19, still have a lower rate of infection and deaths compared to the general population it becomes quite understandable that the meticulous hygiene practices made by nurses while donning face masks and other PPEs such as regularly wiping surfaces with disinfectant wipes, and regular hand hygiene practice of combining hand washing with alcohol-based hand rub (ABHR), in a nutshell, makes a great difference.

“The point we are trying to highlight is that it is not enough to just preach to people to practice meticulous hand hygiene without leveraging them the ability to effectively do so vis-à-vis adequate provision of basic hygiene items such as disinfectant wipes, toiletries, ABHR, and so on.

“The battle we are currently waging against COVID-19 cannot be won by bullets or by ventilators but by effective hygiene practices which should be done with basic hygiene items complimenting regular hand washing with soap and water. Therefore the bulletproof everybody should be universally provided with at this auspicious moment is disinfectant wipes, toiletries, alcohol-based sanitizers, and any other thing needed for effective hand hygiene to efficiently complement hand washing with soap and water.

“Now is, therefore, time for countries to invoke their Defense Production Acts or whichever means possible for mass production and free mandatory distribution of disinfectant wipes, toiletries, alcohol-based hand sanitizers, and masks (regular masks or those made from clothing materials) to the general public and as well make the use of facemask in the public compulsory with punitive actions against defaulters.

“The WHO, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC (US)] and the CDCs of other countries should as a matter of urgent importance recommend these measures as mandatory for speedy implementation across the globe – the statement concluded.

The year 2020 was declared the year of the nurses by the World Health Organization (WHO) in honour of the irreparable sacrifices Nurses & Midwives make to keep mankind safe & healthy in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale, the mother of modern-day nursing.

However, this year that was supposed to be a year for celebrating the hard work and sacrifices of nurses had turned out to be a year nurses have to work hardest to preserve mankind sequel to the outbreak of the ravenous COVID-19 that is threatening the existence of man.

Since its inception in the 1880s, Labor Day has been marked as a special occasion to honor all workers. But for the year 2020, it is a special day to salute nurses in a unique way. Nurses have made unprecedented sacrifices this year which happen to be a year declared as their own and thus verily deserve to be celebrated in a special way.

UGONSA therefore specially felicitates with Nurses & Midwives all over the world whose efforts make a huge difference in the various healthcare delivery systems of the countries of the world. This year’s Labor Day is a well-deserved day of special tributes for Nurses & Midwives.

To Nurses & Midwives, we say that you deserve a big celebration for standing up for mankind every time. Even though this is a day for you to have relaxed, unwind, and enjoy the company of your families & friends, you have chosen to sacrifice leisure & recreation to remain at the forefront of the war against COVID-19 and other diseases to save and preserve mankind. What on earth can be enough to pay you back? We can only pray God to continue to be the source of your strength, resoluteness, and reward!

For the Nigerian environment where your devotion and contributions towards the prosperity, strength, and well-being of the country are barely acknowledged, we use this occasion to assure you that we shall never let you down. We shall use all our vigour to ensure that utmost importance is attached by the government to the hard work and sacrifices you make to keep the country healthy & safe. We shall continue fighting vigorously for you until you are granted equal rights and equitable treatment in our health system and beyond.

In the memory of our dear mother Nightingale, UGONSA dedicates May Day 2020 to the tribute and honour of the unending sacrifices & contributions of Nurses & Midwives to making the world a better place. We enjoin all Nurses & Midwives to continue in line with the slogan of UGONSA, “make a positive change!”, to shine a positive light of hope on mankind wherever you maybe.
Long Live Nigerian Nurses & Midwives. Happy May Day 2020!!
Signed

Chief (Hon). S.E.O. Egwuenu Nurse P.O. Eteng
National President Ag. National Secretary

Nurses under the auspices of University Graduates of Nursing Science Association (UGONSA) has hailed the sacrifices of Nigerians who have endured excruciating lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19 and the frontline health workers who have put their life on the line to tame the ravenous scourge of the virus. They however called for equity in the handling of anything concerning the frontline health workers’ hazard allowance whether COVID-19 related or not.

In a statement jointly issued by its National President, Chief (Hon) S.E.O. Egwuenu, and Ag.National Secretary, Nurse P.O. Eteng, the association emphasized that long before COVID-19 berthed in Nigeria, it has been demanding for an upward review of health workers’ hazard allowance and have severally characterized as a systemic injustice the fact that frontline health workers that swim in an ocean of hazards are paid N5,000 as hazard allowance across board whereas university lecturers that stay in classrooms which are far less hazardous than hospitals receive a hazard allowance that is 500% higher than what the healthcare workers receive.

“Our call for the upward review of the hazard allowance has been for an equitable review. But it is very unfortunate that equity has been set aside now that COVID-19 has forced the Federal Government (FG) to respond to the critical issue of unfair hazard allowance payable to health workers.
“A review of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by the leaders of the health sector inter-professional associations (Nigeria Medical Association [NMA], Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria [PSN], National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives [NANNM] and the Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU) with the FG, in what was termed ‘a special COVID-19 hazard and inducement allowance’ shows that it was marred with inequity and favouritism.

“By declaring that the N5,000 hazard allowance will be replaced by 50% of the consolidated basic salary of the COVID-19 frontline healthcare workers, the MOU insidiously favoured medical doctors more than other healthcare workers especially the nurses who are the cornerstone of care in the hospitals that stay round-the-clock in the patients’ bedside and have the highest exposure to healthcare-related hazards.

“As at date, Nurses are the most marginalized and the least paid among the core healthcare professionals such that a House Officer who is a medical intern that just left school and yet to do NYSC (National Youth Service Corps) earns more than a Principal Nursing Officer who has spent more than 12 years in the Civil Service post-NYSC.

“When the very fat consolidated salary structure for the doctors is indexed with the paltry sum given to nurses as their consolidated salary it becomes very clear that doctors have been insidiously favoured while the nurses who are the most exposed to healthcare-related hazards among the health workers have again been shortaged in the schemes of things.

“Equity demands that those that are more exposed to hazards should receive a higher hazard allowance.

“With that, if 50% of the doctors’ fat consolidated basic salary is paid to them as hazard allowance, 100% of the nurses’ meagre consolidated basic salary should be paid to nurses as hazard allowance since their consolidated salary is a minute fraction of the consolidated salaries paid to doctors and at the same time they are more exposed to healthcare-related hazards than other members of the healthcare team.

“That both the Minister of Health and the Minister of Labour & Employment who represented the FG were all medical doctors should not have been an avenue for lacing the MOU in inequity and professional favouritism.

The association called on the FG to review the MOU and make the special COVID-19 hazard allowance for nurses 100% of their consolidated basic salary and appealed to nurses to continue to be resolute in discharging their duties donning appropriate PPEs despite the provocative development.
“We hereby call on the FG to review the MOU and make the hazard allowance of nurses a 100% of their consolidated basic salary to reflect their close range and round-the-clock exposure to healthcare related hazards. We further admonish that at a critical time like this, what is needed to defeat the virus is equity and unity and not favouritism anchored on professional chauvinism.

We call on nurses to continue to be resolute in selflessly delivering frontline qualitative care to Nigerians despite the deliberate provocations by the government and appeal to government to scale-up provision of Personal Protective Equipments (PPEs) for the frontline health workers. We once again wish to remind nurses not to do away with our earlier warning of ‘no PPE no work’ – the statement concluded.

Nurses, under the auspices of University graduates of nursing science association (UGONSA), have decried the rising cases of suicide amongst students in the nation’s institutions of higher learning, describing the unfortunate development as a “sad commentary”.

In a statement by the UGONSA Assistant National Secretary East, Nurse P.O. Eteng, the association opined that the sad development now occurs almost every other week among our youths.

The statement read, “The questions begging for urgent answers are - what could make a young person in-waiting as a leader of tomorrow, see no reason to continue to exist? Have we as a Country by our actions or inactions subtly or overtly made the future of our young generation irretrievably bleak? Will this ugly trend abate or is this just the beginning?

“Whatever the answers to these questions are, one thing we cannot play down on is the urgent need to tackle the ugly trend.

“In doing this, a holistic approach involving the family, the community, the school and the government must be elaborated with keen action towards restoring hope to the young generation as hope is the anchor of existence without which life becomes meaningless and useless.

“Most specifically, solutions must be found for the skyrocketing unemployment rate pervading the country as nothing can be more traumatizing than the agony and fear of endlessly remaining unemployed after graduating from a higher institution. Such is a sad commentary that is akin to forcing an adult to remain a child forever.

“While it is good to engage the services of healthcare professionals in stemming the tide, the ultimate goal should be to treat the disease and not its symptoms. As such we must look inward to tackle those things that make life seem like a mistake to our youths; those things that make them live in morbid fear of the unknown and hopelessness; those things that gravitate towards guilt and self-condemnation; those things that contort inclusiveness; those things that breed unending poverty and hardship.

“Most importantly, we admonish our youths to always remember that a living dog is better than a dead lion. Just as failure today is not failure forever, hardships and problems today are also not hardships or problems forever!

“Life is the most sacred gift from God that should never be tampered with by any man let alone oneself. Doing so is an unpardonable sin. Rather than resorting to taking ones’ own life we appeal to our youths to speak up and cry out whenever life challenges are excruciatingly pushing to end it all - the statement concluded.

Nurses under the aegis of University Graduates of Nursing Science Association (UGONSA) has called for a compromise between the Federal Government (FG) and organized labour over the new minimum wage for improved productivity and enhanced national economy.

The National Secretary of the Association, Nurse Goodluck Nshi made the call on Monday while briefing newsmen in Abakaliki.

He said that a peaceful resolution of the disagreement would enable the workforce focus on its input to move the nation forward and allow the FG concentrate on ways to tackle the insecurity facing the country.

Nshi said that even though it is good to index minimum wage against cost of living to cushion the sufferings of the masses, the FG and the organized labour should appreciate the fact that issues around minimum wage and standard of living are knotty and as such a deeper understanding of the factors at play is necessary in finding a more encompassing solution to the minimum wage impasse.

He recalled that in the year 2011 when minimum wage was increased from N7500 to N18000, the N18000 amounted to $112 USD at the then exchange rate of N160 per dollar. Today, at the exchange rate of N360 per dollar, the N30, 000 minimum wage in concern amounts to $83 USD. Therefore, even with N30, 000 minimum wage, it is understandable that there are still gross marginal wage deficits if wages in 2019 are compared with what they were in the year 2011 in US dollars. This notwithstanding, it is also understandable that prices of commodities are higher today than they were in the year 2011.

On the other hand, the price of crude oil (which is the mainstay of our economy) has plummeted from $110 per barrel that it sold in the year 2011 to around $60 per barrel in the year 2019. This represents about 45% reduction in government revenue from what it used to be in the year 2011 when compared to what it is in the current year.

“These factors need to be considered by both FG and the organized labour for the necessary compromise to be made to move the country forward.

On the Sallah celebration the UGONSA scribe called on Muslims and Christians to leave harmoniously with one another in order to move the country to the next level.

"We facilitate with our Muslim brothers as they celebrate the 2019 Eid-el-Kabir.

"We wish you all a joyful Sallah Celebration. May God bless you and your dear ones with Peace, Prosperity and Happiness on this occasion of Eid-El-Kabir," Nshi said.

Nurses under the aegis of University Graduates of Nursing Science Association (UGONSA) in a joint statement by its National President, Chief (Hon.) S.E.O. Egwuenu and National Secretary, Nurse G.I. Nshi, have shown their displeasure and discontentment over the defamatory online video shared on the twitter page of Consumer Protection Council (CPC) as they launched the Patients' Bills of Rights (PBOR) on 31st of July, 2018. The association said the Patient Bill of Rights was a welcome development and should have been enacted long ago and also that Nurses appreciate and strongly support it as they have always done with anything beneficial to the patient.

However, the association took strong exception to the derogatory animated video posted by the CPC that casted unwarranted aspersions on image of nurses in its launch of the PBOR.

The statement read, “We wish to inform the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbanjo, and the CPC that the derogatory animated video that accompanied launch of the PBOR as shared in their twitter handle does not and can never be a representation of the articulate and hardworking Nigeria nurses but rather a representation of the idiocy of those that made the post.

“Nigerian nurses despite working under unsafe staffing environment in Nigeria where one nurses is made to care for more than 20 patients per shift as against the recommended maximum of one nurse to five patients have, against all odds, lived up to expectation in promoting health, restoring health, preventing illness and alleviating the sufferings of Nigerians.

“It is height of hypocrisy for those that have refused to use the power entrusted to them by Nigerians to better the lots of our health sector, as evidenced by their abandoning of our health sector to rot as they and their families embark on incessant trips abroad for medical treatment, to turn around and blame the hardworking nurses who on a daily basis make uncountable sacrifices to keep our sinking health sector afloat as the reason for the poor state of our health sector.

“UGONSA wishes to make it very clear to Prof. Osibanjo and CPC that nurses are not Hospital accountants or money keepers and do not demand for or collect money from patients and we challenge the vice president and the CPC to name one hospital in Nigeria where nurses are the hospital accountants. The content of the video from CPC clearly shows that those working at the CPC are unlettered and incompetent and therefore not qualified to work in such a highly revered agency. If not they should have been abreast of the simple fact that the scope of professional roles of a nurse as a holistic caregiver, a patient advocate, a clinical teacher, a communicator, an instructor, a specialist and a researcher does not include accounting and money keeping.

“Nigerian nurses remain the best globally. That is why progressive economies (where our political elites, including those that made the provocative video, rush to for medical treatment) such as the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, United Arab Emirate, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and so on, fall over themselves in a struggle to recruit Nigerian nurses. This is well buttressed by the report that between May 2017 to May 2018, more than 800 nurses left the shores of this country for countries where their services are appreciated unlike in Nigeria where they are dehumanized, poorly paid and defamed.

“We verily demand that Prof. Osibanjo and the CPC take down the video immediately and apologize to Nigerian Nurses.

“This Government seems to derive joy from traumatizing nurses and trivializing the health of Nigerians. First they withheld the salaries of the Midwives running the defunct Midwifery Service Scheme (MSS) and killed the MSS programme which has been the most accessible Maternal and Child Health programme available to the poorest of Nigerian women and children living in the most remote parts of the country. Next, they seized the salaries of Nurses and other JOHESU (Joint Health Sector Union) members for embarking on strike following the failure of the government to honour its own agreement which it freely entered with JOHESU. Paradoxically, they never meted such ill treatment done to nurses and other health workers to others that also embarked on strike e.g. the academic staff and non-academic staff unions of universities (ASUU and NASU), and the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD).Thirdly, they refused to place graduate nurses at par with their counterparts in other healthcare professions who they share similar entry requirements and course duration for the first degree in the university with. Now they have elevated rascality to a new valour of governance by blaming and castigating nurses for their own failure to revitalize our health sector via their misguided animated video. Nurses will not take it anymore!

“As UGONSA charges nurses to go about their legitimate duties not minding this unwarranted provocation from those who have clearly demonstrated that they have poor sense of reasoning, we charge them to get their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) and mobilize their relatives for same ready for 2019 elections and wait for directives from the association as failure to pay up the withheld monies and also apologize for this stupid attack shall never go unpunished- the association said.

UGONSA
ugonsa2gnan@gmail.com

COMMUNIQUÉ ISSUED AT THE END OF 18TH NATIONAL PROFESSIONAL CONFERENCE AND SCIENTIFIC UPDATE OF THE UNIVERSITY GRADUATES OF NURSING SCIENCE ASSOCIATION (UGONSA) HELD AT PRIMARY HEALTHCARE TUTORS CENTRE, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE HOSPITAL (UCH), IBADAN, OYO STATE, BETWEEN 25TH AND 29TH SEPTEMBER, 2017.
Tag: NURSING REFORMATION SUMMIT

Theme: NURSING EDUCATION AND PRACTICE: DESIGN FOR DATA DRIVEN DECISION MAKING.

PROFESSIONAL SESSION’S THEMES
 EFFECTIVE PUBLIC RELATIONS IN NURSING PRACTICE: A SALIENT TOOL FOR THE GROWTH OF NURSES AND NURSING PROFESSION IN NIGERIA.
 CLINICAL SUPERVISION AND MENTORSHIP IN NURSING: A WAKE-UP CALL FOR NIGERIAN NURSES.
 ADDRESSING CONTEMPORARY CHALLENGES IN NURSING PRACTICE.
 ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROSPECTS FOR NURSES: IMMUNITY FOR RECESSION

SCIENTIFIC UPDATE THEMES
 A CRITIQUE OF THE STUDY: HOW NURSES AND THEIR WORK ENVIRONMENT AFFECT PATIENT EXPERIENCES OF THE QUALITY OF CARE.
 PERCEPTION OF NURSE TRAINERS AND STAKEHOLDERS ON THE OBSTACLES TO UPGRADING BASIC NURSING EDUCATION IN TEACHING HOSPITALS IN ENUGU STATE.

Preamble
UGONSA highly appreciates the Federal Government of Nigeria for all its efforts to make good the lots of the common man; Mykelite Travels and Georgian College in Ontario, Canada – the runner of graduate certificate programme in Acute Complex Care Nursing, our good partner for the event; Prof. TemitopeAlonge, the Chief Medical Director,University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan; the Government and good People of Oyo State for providing a peaceful and hospitable atmosphere for our National Professional Conference and Scientific Update, and the Oyo State Chapter of UGONSA for a well-organized hosting.

The opening ceremony
The flag-off of the event was done by the Executive Governor of Oyo State, His Excellency Governor AbiolaAjimobi, ably represented by the Deputy Governor, His Excellency Otunba Moses Alake Adeyemo. The event was chaired by Chief (Hon).Solomon E.O.Egwuenu, UGONSA National President. Other Dignitaries that graced the event included Dr. TemitopeAlonge , the Chief Medical Director of UCH, Ibadan, represented by Dr.Afuwape, the deputy CMAC of the hospital; Dr. Saleh N. Garba, the keynote presenter, a member of board of Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN) and the head of department of Nursing Science, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, represented by Dr. Patricia O. Onianwa; Mr.TaiwoAjiboye, the Director Nursing services, Oyo State Ministry of Health; Mr.Adeyeni Abdul-Lateef Babatunde, the National President, National Association of Perioperative Nurses (NAPON)among others.
There were goodwill messages from the dignitaries. Professional Sessions were anchored by Nurse Nwodoh Chijioke Oliver, Nurse Ojo OpeyemiIdowu, Nurse Ekuma-Ojim Cynthia Judith and Nurse Nshi Goodluck Ikechukwu. Scientific Updates were handled by Nurse Olufunmilola Akintayo and Nurse Nwodoh Chijioke Oliver.

RESOLUTIONS
After extensive deliberations on a variety of issues affecting the nursing profession in general and University Graduates of Nursing Science in particular and other burning national issues, the congress resolved as follows:
1. The congress-in-session appreciated the president MuhammaduBuhari-led Federal Government for its fight against corruption and urged it to beam its search light of anticorruption on the health sector. However, the congress observed that any fight against corruption that does not positively impact the economic situation of the citizens is as good as an exercise in futility and therefore urge the federal government to take additional steps towards improving the economic conditions of the ordinary Nigerian.
2. The congress implored all potential and practicing nurses to regularly acquaint themselves with the tenets of public relations in nursing practice so as to improve the public image of the nursing profession and make it more endearing to healthcare clients and the general public.
3. The Congress called on the government and appropriate authorities to recognize the importance of advanced education in nursing practice and thus commence remuneration of nurses that have acquired additional higher qualifications in nursing accordingly.
4. Congress commended the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria for the laudable step of registration and licensing of some nursing specialties at postgraduate levels vis-à-vis the following M.Sc programmes {Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, Nursing Education, Nursing Administration, and Community Health Nursing} and implored the council to extend such registration to every other specialties in nursing to encourage clinical specialization at the postgraduate level of nursing education.
5. The congress-in-Session observed that Medical-Surgical Nursing (Med-Surg) is a conglomerate of many nursing specialties such as Perioperative Nursing, Accident and Emergency Nursing, Anaesthetic Nursing, Orthopaedic Nursing, Burns and Plastic Nursing, Intensive Care Nursing, Cardiothoracic Nursing, Ophthalmic Nursing, Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) Nursing, etc and called on departments of nursing sciences in Nigerian universities currently running only academic M.Sc and P.hD Medical-Surgical Nursing to also commence running the individual clinical specialties that make up the Med-Surg as separate courses at post-graduate levels since they are, unlike Med-Surg, registrableby Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN). This will afford nurses, who want to specialize in clinical specialties, the opportunity of having Masters and PhD in their chosen clinical specialties of nursing practice that are registrable by NMCN. Consultancy in Nursing Practice will be more feasible when specialist nurses start having Masters and P.hD in their clinical specialties against the current situation where they operate with only post-basic qualifications.
6. The congress strongly frowned at the continued subjugation of Nursing Services as a division in the department of Hospital Services under the headship of a Physician and called on the federal government to implement, without further delay, the Yayale Ahmed presidential committee report on harmony in the health sector, which inter alia recommended a fully-fledged autonomous Department of Nursing Service in the Federal Ministry of Health. The Congress equally demanded the immediate upgrade of Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN) to a “grade A” regulatory agency by the Federal Government of Nigeria.
7. Congress advised nurses to give more to research activities to continually generate current data for evidence-based nursing practice and called on governments at all levels, Professional Associations and Non-Governmental Organizations to make grants available for enhancement of research in Nursing Sciences.
8. The congress hailed the management of the few hospitals that have commenced internship training for the graduates of Bachelor of Nursing Science (B.N.Sc) degree as approved by the National Council on Establishment (NCE) and called on the government to compel those that are yet to implement it to urgently commence such.
9. The congress-in-session noted that the recent approved internship training for B.N.Sc graduates by the NCE was not done in the spirit of the Industrial Arbitration Panel (IAP) award of the year 1981, which categorically specified that in Nigeria the profession of Nursing is on parity with the profession of Pharmacy as is the case in Great Britain. Appointing graduates of B.N.Sc degree on CONHESS 07 as interns and on CONHESS 08 post-NYSC (National Youth Service Corps) whereas their counterparts in Pharmacy with Bachelor of Pharmacy (B.Pharm) are appointed on CONHESS 08 as interns and on CONHESS 09 post-NYSC is a distortion of the parity prescribed by the IAP award. Congress therefore called on all the concerned authorities to set machinery in motion for rectification of this anomaly. For the avoidance of doubt, the correct placement is CONHESS 08{GL 9} for nurse interns and CONHESS 09{GL 10} post NYSC.
10. The congress called on all stakeholders in the nursing profession to recognize the non-negotiable need for unity and come together to pursue a common goal to promote the professional growth and development of nurses and the nursing profession.
11. The congress strongly frowned at the skyrocketing rate of quackery and the slap on the wrist penalty prescribed by the Establishment Act of the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN) as a punishment for quackery, which it described as rather an enabler of quackery than a deterrent, and called on the National Assembly to urgently review the NMCN establishment Act for tougher penalties against quackery and for greater leverage for nurses to perform in the full range of skills and competencies for which they were trained and licensed.
12. The congress enjoined Nigerians to always ask questions on the status and qualifications of any person attending to them as a nurse or a midwife because not everyone that dons the nurses’ uniform is a nurse or a midwife. Nurses and midwives, unlike quacks, have practicing licenses issued by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria, after a rigorous education and training in the university or schools of nursing and midwifery. Quacks criminally disguise themselves as auxiliary nurses and operate without license, killing and maiming people. Just as there is nothing like auxiliary Doctors, the public should be aware that there is nothing like auxiliary Nurses.
13. The congress also reiterated the need for all schools of Nursing and Midwifery to be upgraded to degree awarding institutions with post-basic specialty programmes of Nursing and Midwifery metamorphosing into post-graduates programmes as Masters and P.hD.
14. Congress encouraged nurses to explore and maximize their entrepreneurial potentials for the enhancement of their economic status in order to attain financial independence and contribute meaningfully to the economy of the nation.
15. Congress-in-Session implored the general public and consumers of nursing services to relate well with nurses and avoid any form of assault and harassment of nurses when expressing their grievances.
16. Finally, the congress agreed and approved that the next UGONSA National Professional Conference and Scientific Update will hold in the 1st week of October, 2018 at Kaduna State, Nigeria.
Communique Drafting Committee Members
Nurse Nwodoh Chijioke Oliver. University of Nigeria Enugu Campus - Chairman
Nurse Akinola Adekunle Olubunmi. NeuroPsychiatric Hospital, Aro-Abeokuta -Secretary
Nurse Agbo Gabriel E. Federal Teaching Hospital Abakaliki- Member
Nurse A-James Valentine C. University College Hospital, Ibadan - Member
Nurse Ekuma-Ojin J.C.E. SON, Federal Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki- Member
Signed
Chief (Hon.) Egwuenu Solomon .E.O National President
Nurse Nshi Goodluck I. National Secretary
Nurse Afoi Barry B. National PRO

Dr. Saleh N. Garba, a member of the board of Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria, has given advice on what must be done to make the Nigerian healthcare delivery system great again.
Delivering the keynote address at the event of the 18th National Professional Conference and Scientific Update of the University Graduates of Nursing Science Association (UGONSA) at University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, the don identified quackery and poor remuneration of healthcare professionals as the bane of our healthcare system.
He said: “Bringing the hammer hard on quacks and quackery with every sense of seriousness and implementing a non-dicriminatory welfare and emolument package for healthcare professionals is necessary to put our health system on the path of greatness again.
“As a nurse and a member of the Nursing Council’s board, I have personally made a critical study of the establishment Act of the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria and found out that in the fight against quackery in Nursing and Midwifery practice, the established legal framework for Nursing education and practice is rather a critical enabler of quackery than a deterrent.
“The provisions of the Act regarding punishment for offences such as unauthorized practice without registration, employment of an unregistered person to practice as nurse or midwife and forgery of the council’s documents such as practicing license need to be thoroughly reviewed and strictly implemented.
“First the Act in its Section 20 stated that the Courts where cases of quackery should be tried are those lower than the High Court, which in my humble understanding can be magistrate or customary court.
“Secondly, the Act prescribed the penalty for those tried and convicted of quackery as a fine not exceeding N1000 (one thousand naira) for individuals or N2000 (two thousand naira) for corporate bodies or a prison term not exceeding 2 years.
“The term “not exceeding”, as far as I am concerned, is a caricature and mockery of the fight against quackery because it creates obvious loop holes that have been perennially exploited by offenders and trial judges. An amount not exceeding N2000 or N1000 as the case may be can be one naira or fifty kobo and a duration not exceeding 2 years can be 30 seconds or one hour, depending on the discretion of the trial judge. In my opinion, the act needs to be reviewed so that stiffer punishment will be introduced to meet the exigency of time. This will improve the quality of nursing services in the country since nurses are the single largest, most visible and most effective health personnel in all health care facilities.
“Unlike the developed world where cases of quackery are given wider publicity and tried in a higher court, here, quackery (a crime against humanity, whose punishment should be commensurate and hefty) is not considered grievous enough to deserve trial at our high courts despite that quacks, through malpractices and medical errors, kill and maim Nigerians every day.
“The slap-on-the-wrist punishments prescribed by the Act have emboldened defaulters to keep defaulting. Little wonder most Private Hospitals and Churches have continued to constitute themselves into quack breeding centres with unbridled impunity.
The don, who is also Head of the Department of Nursing Sciences of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, also harped on poor remuneration of healthcare professionals as another key factor that has contributed to keeping our health system below average.
“In developed health systems, which our political leaders patronize in their escalating medical tourism, private hospitals are the key drivers of care delivery. Yet you are unlikely to find any private hospital that enlists the services of a quack. However, here in Nigeria, most private hospitals, in trying to save cost and maximize profits, enlist the services of quacks, who are dubiously branded as ‘auxiliary Nurses’, to the detriment of qualitative care and client safety. Just as there is nothing like ‘auxiliary Doctor’, there is also nothing like ‘auxiliary Nurse’.
Every year our best brains and highly skilled healthcare professionals migrate to foreign countries in search of better emoluments and welfare packages. Funny enough, the millions we refused to spend on their remunerations here to develop our own health system in turn leaves our coffers as billions annually in medical tourism to the advantage of foreign countries that have their health systems in good order.
The don concluded by calling on the National Assembly to urgently review the establishment Act of the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria and make its bite on quackery harsh enough to serve as a potent deterrent. He also called on the Federal and State governments to take the issues of welfare and remunerations of healthcare professionals paramount to avert the sporadic industrial actions frequently witnessed in our healthcare system such as the one recently suspended by the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) and that currently embarked on by a coalition of healthcare professionals under the umbrella of Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU).

The Governor of Oyo State, His Excellency Governor AbiolaAjimobi, has hailed nurses for their efforts in caring for the sick.

Flagging off the event of the 18th National Professional Conference and Scientific Update of the University Graduates of Nursing Science Association (UGONSA) at University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, the Governor, who was represented by his deputy, His Excellency Otunba Moses Alake Adeyemo, extolled the virtues of nurses and their selfless efforts in caring for those burdened by diseases and illnesses.

He however frowned at incessant industrial actions by healthcare providers as witnessed in our healthcare delivery system.

According to him: “The oath of allegiance to humanity, which healthcare providers swore to, demands that the patient’s plight or interest should be put above everything. When healthcare practitioners abandon work for strikes, the patient suffers.

“And the patient is no other person than all of us. Nurses and other healthcare providers should know that their calling is for selfless service to humanity and therefore should endeavor to dwell in the spirit of this calling no matter how daunting the exigent challenges might be.

While government is doing its best to address the challenges facing the health system, the care providers should show understanding and know that we are all partners in progress and our collective objective and mandate is to keep our people healthy and happy - he said.

The University Graduates of Nursing Science Association (UGONSA) has said that the Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU) seems not to have learnt from its past mistakes.

In a statement, Thursday, by its National President, Chief (Hon.) Solomon E.O. Egwuenu and National Secretary, Nurse Goodluck I. Nshi, the association said that JOHESU had not learnt from its past irresponsible demeanor that provoked UGONSA into calling off the solidarity of its members during its previous industrial actions.

The statement read: “The purported list of JOHESU’s demands that itemized enhanced entry point placements for Medical Laboratory Scientists and Radiographers, to the exclusion of the graduate nurses, that suffer a similar fate, shows that JOHESU is yet to learn from its past mistakes.
“We wonder why JOHESU thinks it will enlist overwhelming solidarity from all segments of nurses when it displays a divisive and parochial tactic of using nurses' numerical strength to selectively pursue a narrow agenda that will only favour other professions at the expense of the nursing profession.

“Everybody in JOHESU knows that graduate nurses are not only battling the issue of enhanced entry point placement on CONHESS 08 for internship and CONHESS 09 post-NYSC, at the moment, but also the impunity of CMDs in violating extant circulars as a good number of them still appoint graduate nurses on CONHESS 07 against the currently prescribed CONHESS 08 post-NYSC.

“We expected that, having shot itself in the foot in the past, JOHESU would have by now amended its ways to be all-inclusive in the handling of affairs of all the professions under its umbrella. But this seems to not be the case.

“It is on record that JOHESU never supported our struggle for internship yet we successfully achieved it on our own. If they have also decided not to identify with us in our current struggle for proper placement there is no cause for alarm because, like the internship, proper placement is not beyond our capacity to achieve. However, they should not dream of nurses’ solidarity and support because we shall mobilize nurses to jettison whatever flowery antics they may use as bait to lure them into strikes that will not benefit their profession. After all reciprocity is the dynamics of diplomacy.

“We want to put it on record that graduate nurses have no problem with the coalition, but have every problem with the irrationality of perennially having their concerns excluded from what JOHESU presents to the government.

“While the weight advantage of nurses is being used to get the attention of the government, one would expect that nurses' demands would always be on the front burner of JOHESU’s demands. But the situation is so precarious that nurses' specific demands, especially those that have direct bearing with graduate nurses, are not accommodated at all; not even at the bottom of its list of demands!

“We believe that we are doubly armoured when we fight together; we believe in teamwork and have strong faith in team spirit and solidarity. But when issues of concern to nurses are treated with levity and disdain, the latitude of elaboration of our solidarity is stifled as solidarity can only be sufficiently elaborated under an atmosphere of equity, justice and inclusiveness.

For the umpteenth time, we call on JOHESU to be reasonable and realize that nurses are inalienable stakeholders in its project. As much as we do not wish that what happened in the past repeats itself, we shall have no other alternative than to withhold our solidarity and fight our battles alone if our specific problems as enumerated are overlooked and trivialized as usual- the statement said.

Nurses under the aegis of University Graduates of Nursing Science Association (UGONSA) have reacted to the video trending on social media, which emanated from the stables of Omega Power Ministries (OPM), where the church was seen parading a group of women in nurses uniform that it claimed were “Nurses and Midwives” it trained, in collaboration with an NGO, within a period of three weeks, in its skills acquisition programme to become nurses and midwives.
In a statement jointly signed by its National President, Chief (Hon.) Solomon E.O. Egwuenu and the National Secretary, Nurse Goodluck I. Nshi, the association described the action of the Omega Power Ministries (OPM) as not just an act of criminality but a crime against humanity.
“While we are not against the OPM running skills acquisition schemes to empower its members, we are strongly against elevating such to a point of criminality and callously endangering people’s lives.

“Going beyond what is legally permissible like skills acquisition in agriculture, businesses, fashion and designing, hair styling, or computer training – to dive into training its members as “quacks” in nursing and midwifery professions, which are statutorily regulated to protect the public, goes beyond the legal and moral decency expected of a place of worship. Such an act of criminality can only be committed by a morally bankrupt and integrity-challenged church run by swindlers disguising as pastors.

“Innocent Nigerians die every day from medico-nursing errors and malpractices committed by quacks such as those paraded as Nurses and Midwives by the OPM and when mischief of their quackery results in deaths or disabilities, news will always misattribute such to nurses. Such ignorant, and most times deliberate and malicious, misattributions have inadvertently casted a negative shadow on the public image and respectability of the noble profession whose members selflessly work round- the-clock to promote health, prevent illnesses, restore health and alleviate the sufferings of Nigerians.

“That OPM criminally crashed a professional course that is run for 5 years in the university, for the first degree, and three years in the schools of Nursing and Midwifery, for diplomas - to a three week skills acquisition programme, and yet the leader of the church has not been arrested by the police for such a grievous crime shows that the country attaches no strong value to human lives and thus is not committed to protecting the public. We implore the Nigerian Police to urgently take a proactive measure to save the public by arresting the church’s leader and his accomplices over this crime against humanity.

“Can fashion and designing that do not involve human lives even be learnt in three weeks, much less the complex professions of nursing and midwifery that handle people’s lives?

“This killer squad churned out by the OPM gave a typical example of how they will murder Nigerians in the speech of its supposed most intelligent trainee when she declared that amniotic fluid is inimical to pregnancy, implying in her confession that she had been trained to murder pregnant women and their babies by rupturing their amniotic membranes to drain amniotic fluids in the criminal guise of working as a midwife to monitor and manage pregnancies. Such is just a tip of the iceberg of the level and manner of havoc that quacks wreck on people’s lives and health.

“ In a saner clime, for criminally constituting itself into another Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN), the statutory regulatory body for nursing education and practice, and murdering the ethics and standard of Nursing and Midwifery practice thereby callously putting human lives in danger, the operating licence of this dungeon of criminality that calls itself Omega Power Ministries (OPM), where one can criminally become a nurse and a midwife in three weeks, would have been withdrawn by the government.

Life is not an ordinary commodity as the OPM and other quack-breeding centres regard it. We enjoin Nigerians to always ask questions on the status and qualifications of any person attending to them as a nurse or a midwife because all that glitters is not gold. Not everyone that dons the nurses’ uniform is a nurse or a midwife. Nurses and midwives have practicing licences issued by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria while quacks, like the killers squad of the OPM, operate without licence- the statement said.

Nurses under the aegis of University Graduates of Nursing Science Association (UGONSA) have called for unity among Nigerians in this trying period when the father of the country is off-colour.

In a statement jointly signed by the National President, Chief (Hon.) S.E.O. Egwuenu, and the National Secretary, Nur. G.I. Nshi, the association said: “in families when the father is constrained by health challenges other members unite to keep the family moving”.

“Good enough, our president, being a man that has the interest of the country at heart, properly handed over to his second in command, Prof. Yemi Osibanjo, before leaving the Country.

Our obligations as members of this big family, Nigeria, at this material time is to show strong support for our father, President Muhammadu Buhari and our elder brother, Prof. Osibanjo, who is acting on his behalf.

"Our support should be unalloyed, be it morally, physically, socially or spiritually and should reflect in our demeanours and utterances.

The association equally used the opportunity to sue for fixing of the health system of the Country.

“It is awful that despite parading highly endowed healthcare providers, our political leaders do not patronize our healthcare system because nobody wants to fix its structural deficits.

“It is disheartening, to say the least, to perennially see our leaders jet out in droves in search of foreign healthcare that was fixed by other leaders.

“It is high time our leaders learnt from the likes of Nelson Mandela of South Africa and Fidel Castro of Cuba who fixed their country’s health system and were nursed to longevity till death by the same system, without junketing around for medical tourism.

“We hope that our dear President is taking note of what makes the British Health System better than ours and as he returns ‘hale and hearty’ to the country, would summon the political will to fix our own system, make it work and save the country from further “medical tourism” embarrassment- the Nurses said.

Nurses under the aegis of University Graduates of Nursing Science Association, UGONSA, have issued a press statement in response to the 8th Senate’s rejection of the nomination of former Speaker of Kwara State House of Assembly, Rt (Hon.) Nurse Ezekiel Yissa Benjamin, as a non-executive commissioner of the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) on the basis of his background as a nurse.
This was contained in a statement jointly signed by its National President, Chief (Hon.) S.E.O Egwuenu, and National Secretary, Nurse. G.I. Nshi.
The statement read, “The attention of UGONSA has been drawn to the unacceptable and condemnable excuse given by the senate for rejection of the nomination of Rt (Hon.) Nurse Ezekiel Yissa as a Non-Executive Commissioner of the NCC, where they asserted that his background as a career Nursing Officer will not put him in good stead to be able to effectively cope with the dynamics of the communication sector if his nomination is confirmed.
“With all due respect we take strong exception to such jaundiced, careless and irresponsible assertion that was made not only in bad light but also craftily designed to denigrate the nursing profession and to portray Nurses as people that are below average in public service and administration”.
“We found it laughable that the Senate of a country whose basic qualification for occupying the office of the Executive President, the highest office in the land, is the possession of a “Secondary School Certificate” went wide of the mark to denigrate the nursing profession, whose least category of qualifications, the RN, takes a school cert holder not less than 36months of excruciating academic rigours to obtain".
“Any follower of events in Nigeria would not be oblivious of the fact that the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, who was also a former Governor of Kwara State has a political score to settle with Rt (Hon.) Nurse Ezekiel Yissa who had since fallen out of favour with him in Kwara politics”.
“While we are not interested in joining the fray over political issues between the duo, going below standard to drag the most patriotic profession, nursing, into the murky waters of their political row crossed the threshold of senatorial decency and is unacceptable to us, the members of the nursing profession”.
“If Rt (Hon.)Nurse Yissa, who meritoriously served this country and retired as a Deputy Director in the Civil Service and went further to serve as the Speaker of Kwara State House of Assembly, rising meteorically as a result of his capacity and competence in public administration to become the Chairman of Conference of Speakers, is considered bereft of recognized standing experience in public administration as prescribed by Section 7(1) (h) of the NCC Act simply because he is a nurse, it portends that for all of us nurses - no matter how towering our qualifications, character, capacity or competence may be or how meritorious our service to our fatherland may be, we shall never be good enough to be confirmed by the senate when nominated for public offices”.
“Such unpatriotic posture of the Senate is not only an open-market insult to the nursing profession but a careless and irresponsible joke that is highly inimical and capable of damaging and destroying Nurses’ uncommon spirit of altruism and selfless sacrifices for national building and development and therefore must be condemned by every discerning mind”.
”The Sudden evaporation of the age-long legislative camaraderie of “bow and go” accorded to former legislators nominated for national posts by the senate during the turn of Nurse Yissa, a distinguished legislator, underscores that the rejection was more of political scores than the primitive and empty excuse of nursing background given”.
“But for ignorance and poor sense of history the senators would have known that nursing is a global profession sui generis that is as gainfully challenging as any other profession where brilliant scholars distinguish themselves and that nurses have excellently distinguished themselves in services to humanity throughout history such that some, after serving as Presidents of their countries, are today celebrated as liberation and transformation figures e.g. Janet Jagan of Guyana and Machel Samora of Mozambique”
“It is very unfortunate that having a nursing background, which is a strong advantage in other climes is considered a strong disadvantage by our own Senators, and, alas, was the only reason that informed their failure to confirm the nomination of a patriotic Nigerian who has enviably distinguished himself in public administration and services.”
“As we invite well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on our senators to retract this demeaning label on the nursing profession by effecting the confirmation of the nomination of Rt (Hon) Nurse Yissa Ezekiel Benjamin without further delay, we urge all nurses to maintain decorum and continue to make usual altruistic sacrifices for the nation despite this unfortunate and unwarranted attack”, -the statement read.
Signed:
Chief (Hon.) S.E.O Egwuenu Nurse G. I. Nshi
UGONSA National President UGONSA National Secretary