The major aim of any union is to protect and promote the interests of her members. The collective interest of Graduate Nurses and the Nursing Profession in general is to have a “Unified Schemes of Service” through a “Unified Schemes of Education” and the restoration of the parity of the Nursing Profession with the profession of Pharmacy as granted by the undisputed Industrial Arbitration Panel (IAP) Award of 24th April, 1980.We have campaigned and are still campaigning that all schools of Nursing and Midwifery should be upgraded or affiliated to degree awarding institutions to make possession of, at least first degree in Nursing a common factorial among all Nurses and Midwives. We have argued and are still arguing that if such is done, any person seeking admission in any school of Nursing and Midwifery would do such through JAMB and therefore will be able to get B.NSc plus RN/RM straight and direct from any school of Nursing within 5 years and thereafter any other additional course(s) taken in Nursing will stand as Post-Graduate degrees representing Masters and PhD in Nursing as all our post-basic schools shall be upgraded to post-graduate schools if our vision and aspirations by the Grace of God sees the light of the day. We have equally advocated and still clamouring that Nursing Science is not subordinate to our sister professions in the healthcare sector of this our country such as Pharmacy, Physiotherapy, Medical Lab Science, etc, whose University Graduates are placed on CONHESS 09 entry point post NYSC, against the CONHESS 07 University Graduates of Nursing Science are placed Post NYSC. We have equally struggled and are still struggling to achieve internship and proper placement for our members which certainly shall serve as a face lift for the entire profession. Our position has remained that what is good for the goose is also good for the gander. Since the University Graduates of Nursing Science spend the same length of time (5 years) and are admitted with the same entry qualifications for the first degree as our sister professions that are placed on CONHESS 09 entry point post NYSC in the civil service of our country; equity, fairness and justice demands that Graduate Nurses should be equally treated as others. When the principle of equity and fairness is truncated the next civilized movement is to organize a pressure group through which justice is pursued. Our hopes were high at the birth of JOHESU and we gleefully hoped that the actualization of our interests as enumerated above was lurking around, but with the passage of time, what we have seen and what we are still seeing does not in any way come closer to what we bargained or hoped for. At a point we cried out that the leadership of JOHESU seems to be protecting the interest of every other profession under its umbrella except that of Nursing. The most recent events in JOHESU have confirmed our fear that Nurses are just being used as ladder by the leadership of JOHESU to pursue every other interest but not that of Nurses and Midwives.

THE 15 DAYS ULTIMATUM AND THREAT OF STRIKE COME 13TH NOVEMBER, 2014.
Despite the unalloyed solidarity our members have shown to JOHESU since its birth, our interests have never gotten any consideration from JOHESU. Having monitored events in JOHESU keenly since its birth, we can authoritatively infer that in no meeting with the Federal Government has JOHESU ever mentioned “Internship and Proper Placement of Graduate Nurses” as one of the demands of the union. The same JOHESU vigorously pursued “Proper Placement” of the University Graduates of the Medical Laboratory science and got a circular to its effect in August this year. The leadership of our association had earlier warned the leadership of JOHESU to steer clear from the devilish ambition of Yusuf Badmus and Alani Adeniji who perfidiously presented their selfish agenda of Unified Schemes of Service (without Unified Schemes of Education) as a collective agenda of the Nursing profession against our collective aspiration which is achieving a Unified Schemes of Nursing Education, which we undoubtedly believe shall give us the desired Unified schemes of service without bicker as well as achieving internship and proper placement of Graduate Nurses and Midwives. Does it not astonish that JOHESU that had never made any singular statement about the Nursing Internship and Proper Placement has suddenly found mouth to echo Unified (harmonized) schemes of service as a demand of Nurses and Midwives?
gnan protest nannm
We are compelled to ask the following questions:
• If Unified Schemes of service is a good omen, why did JOHESU arrogate it to only Nurses and midwives?
• Why is JOHESU not echoing or demanding a Unified Schemes of Service for Pharmacy, Med lab, Physiotherapy, etc?
• Why is JOHESU not saying-“we demand the release of circular for harmonized schemes of service for our members”, instead of for Nurses and Midwives?
• Why is JOHESU tongue tied in saying –“we demand the immediate release of circular for Internship and Proper Placement of Graduate Nurses”? But was vociferous with the issue of proper placement of Graduates of Medical Laboratory Science which resulted in the correction of their own anomaly.
For a better understanding and appreciation of the grouse of our association, we replicate and analyze the latest demands of JOHESU, which they have threaten to embark on strike on 13th November ,2014 to press home should government not obliged them their demands. The leadership JOHESU had a meeting with the Federal Government on 6th November, 2014.

Below are what they presented as demands of the health workers which must be solved immediately to avert industrial unrest:
1. Non promotion of our members from salary CONHESS 14 to 15 as directors having stayed for 4 to 15 years on the same salary level without promotion in most Federal tertiary Hospitals.
2. Immediate release of circular on adjustment of salary since January 2014 and immediate payment of at least two months arrears while the remaining is paid after being accommodated in 2015 budget.
3. Immediate release of circular on extension of retirement age to be back dated to February, 2014 when the issue was presented to national council on establishment.
4. Immediate and full payment of arrears of salaries of CONHESS 10 skipping outstanding since the year 2010.
5. Immediate amendment of the circular on consultancy status as pronounced by National Industrial court on 22nd July, 2013 and agreed to at a meeting of 12th August, 2014 with the federal Government.
6. Minimizing the lopsidedness in the membership of boards of management of tertiary Hospitals.
7. Need to define the functions and power of honourary consultants in teaching Hospitals and need to appoint more Hospital based consultants instead of honourary consultants.
8. Release of harmonized Schemes of service for Nurses and Midwives in line with the NICN ruling.

The leadership of our association has taken enough time to analyze the above demands and came to the conclusion that demands 1-7 above are flowery gimmicks in which demand no.8 is embedded. Funny enough, our topmost demand .i.e. internship and proper placement of Graduate Nurses is conspicuously missing from the list, but the abhorred, condemned and unacceptable harmonized schemes of service was arrogated exclusively to the Nursing profession. W e do not need any soothsayer to tell us that this act is a thinly-veiled attempt by Yusuf and Adeniji, who have hijacked NANNM as their personal property, to ride on the back of JOHESU to launch their satanic model of Unified schemes of service for Nurses and Midwives which unarguably shall set the ship of Nursing Profession to an irretrievable wreckage. We have said unequivocally without mincing words that the model of Unified Schemes of service which Adeniji and Yusuf are pursuing, that seeks to make the basic qualification(RN) of the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria the basis for ascending the directorate cadre of the profession, is nothing but a poisoned chalice for the profession. It will not only kill the zeal of the motivated Nurses who are already pursuing higher Nursing learning in the University as well as those planning to follow suit, but shall brazenly erode professionalism of Nursing in Nigeria. The feat we achieve in securing easier and greater access of Registered Nurses and Midwives to admission into the baccalaureate programme of Nursing, through the encouragement of more Universities to provide work and study programmes for B.NSc, greater consideration of RN/RMs for direct entry, and development of distance learning programmes such as that of the National Open University, would amount to sheer waste of energy, time and resources if we allow the Adeniji-Yusuf model of Unified Schemes of service which is totally detrimental to the professional growth and development of our profession to materialize.

We have clearly studied the NICN ruling which Adeniji and Yusuf hinged their unholy ambition on and did not come across any session that says that a Nurse without a degree in Nursing should be promoted to the directorate cadre. That the judgment declared that “any Nurse or Midwife who is duly registered by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria is entitled to all rights and privileges of a member of the Nursing and Midwifery profession in terms of remuneration and progression within the service without discrimination” is not a license for Adeniji and Yusuf to misinterpret it to mean that Nurses should be promoted or placed beyond the means allowable by their educational qualifications. According to some top shots in the legal profession whom we consulted for clarifications on the judgment, the ruling simply stands that if two Nurses are employed at the same time on the same level, there should be no inequality in their salaries and allowances as well as years spent for promotion and progression due to any difference in educational background. That is to say that all Nurses on CONHESS 07 for example should take home the same salary package whether they are University Graduates or not. Same is applicable to CONHESS 08, 09, etc. Adeniji and Yusuf cannot claim that both Graduate and non Graduate Nurses on the same salary level do not take home the same salary and allowance packages or that they are not allowed to go for promotion at same time. The judgment does not in any form grant that a Nurse who has no degree in Nursing, and who is compulsorily mandated by the provisions of the extant civil service rules to bag a degree in Nursing to be qualified for promotion into the directorate level to be promoted without having the mandatory Nursing degree .If not so, it implies that Nurses without degree in Nursing should equally be treated same way those with Masters ,PhD and Professorship in Nursing are treated and should equally be allowed to serve as Principals of Schools of Nursing and Midwifery, Nursing University Lecturers, Nursing Research supervisors, Heads of Department of Nursing Sciences, etc and not only as director of Nursing services as these posts and responsibilities equally belong to the members of Nursing and Midwifery profession.

We painfully regret that JOHESU which we have shown unreserved solidarity has not for once spoken against the injustice mated to our members in terms of placement and remuneration but is very quick to join the enemies of progress of our dearest noble profession to propagate agenda that will poison our professional growth and development. No matter how the items, 1-7, in the JOHESU’s demands enumerated above is polished, it does not eliminate the perennial injustice that insubordinates our profession among our sister professions in JOHESU by placing Graduate Nurses on CONHESS 07 entry point against others that are placed on CONHESS 09 per entry. The intention of item 1-7 of these demands is simply to advance the course(S) of our sister professions in JOHESU because remaining at the disadvantaged point that we are currently in, shall never give us room to maximally benefit from these demands if granted. Item 8 is simply there to appease the satanic ambition of Adeniji and Yusuf so that they can use their power in NANNM, which they have hijacked and arrogated to themselves as their personal property, to hoodwink Nurses into joining a strike action that will achieve nothing for the profession other than self-destruction. We utterly refuse to be fooled because we know much about the antecedents of Adeniji and Yusuf as per their congruous propensity to perfidy.

Since Pharmacy, Med lab, Physiotherapy, etc are multi-cadre professions like Nursing and achieved their Internship and proper placement of their Graduates without Unified Schemes of service, why is Yusuf and Adeniji propagating the stinking lies that Unified Schemes of service is essential for the realization of internship and proper placement of Graduate Nurses? Is it not in the same healthcare delivery system of our country that our sister professions with multi-cadres like ours are enjoying internship and proper placement of their Graduates without any scintilla of Unified Schemes of Service? Why must our own issues always take anomalous shape?
We want all our members to be rest assured that the combined effort of our council and our association shall give us our long overdue internship and effect our proper placement from our aberrant current position. Soonest by the Grace of God we shall break some news that will set all of you into jubilation.

We hereby strongly call on all our members as well as every discerning Nurse and Midwife who truly loves the Nursing profession and who wishes a better future for the profession to henceforth divorce from any JOHESU activities until further notice. Remain resolute, calm, dedicated to duty, and ever ready to make positive changes in client care and treatment. Man your unit, care for your client very well and impress and thrill you clients as well as you employer with your Nursing interventions, should they decide to embark on their perfidious strike. By the Grace of God we must build a nursing profession that shall reflect Nightingale’s dream in Nigeria.

Hon S.E.O. Egwuenu National President
Nurse G.I. Nshi National secretary

Oga Seun, I think this deserve to be put on FP. the interests of these undergraduates should be made known to the world.

..

I sincerely hope they implement their internship scheme, It's really an injustice to the nursing profession, if other medical professionals could enjoy theirs then I see no reason why they shouldn't. The purpose for the internship scheme was to enable the medical graduate obtain some practical skills prior to the NYSC, so as be proficient in training. Depriving the nursing profession of this experience would have a negative effect while practicing, while many May want to go into the lecturing field after graduation, so the internship program would enable them appreciate most of what have been taught theoretically during training at the university levels. Most fresh graduating Medical Doctors are novices in practice, they only garner such knowledge during their horsemanship regimen, such could also be said for the Medical Laboratory Scientists, Pharmacist, Octometrist, Radiologist, Physiotherapists, Dieticians, etc.