When the snakes invaded the health institution, activities there were disrupted as the reptiles entered the offices and workers ran for dear lives. The situation was such that the authorities asked the workers to stay away from duty so that the premises could be fumigated to “avoid any ugly incident.”
Just as the workers are settling down to work, another invasion by snakes and other reptiles seems looming, with the hospital premises already overgrown with weeds. When the reporter visited the hospital last week, the compound looked like anything but a supposed centre of medical excellence. The buildings and equipments are decaying. And no one cares. Or so it seems. There are allegations that check-off dues of the state council of the Medical and Health Workers’ Union of Nigeria (MHWUN) are being misapplied.
Hospital in a forest
Speaking on the ugly state of the environment, a staffer of the hospital who identified himself simply as Okpani, explained: “The reason the compound is so busy is that the labourers who were supposed to clean up the environment have not been paid their salaries for several months and, because of that, they are not keen to work. They practically go on empty stomach hence they abandoned their job. Come to think of it, nobody can do that kind of job on empty stomach unless you want that person to die. That is the reason if you look around the compound, it is so bushy. Again, there is no light. If you come to this place at night, it does not look like a teaching hospital at all; there is no electricity. Even the electric bulbs are dead and when you ask the management to replace the dead bulbs so that the work of the security men can be enhanced at night, the management will tell you that there is no money. Can you imagine a situation whereby a teaching hospital cannot afford to replace dead electric bulbs?
“The institution is usually left in its forest state for months. It is only when they have something like accreditation or a visitor coming that they contract out the clearing of the premises instead of passing through the employed staff and maybe given a little incentive since their salary is not regular. They will clear the compound and claim that they spent about N2million each time they do so.”
Perhaps, it was the bushy state of the hospital and the darkness that envelopes it at night that made armed robbers to invade the facility and rob pregnant women and newly delivered mothers of their money, telephones and other valuables not too long ago.
Work without pay
In fact, non-payment of salaries is a big issue at the hospital. Investigations revealed that the morale of the staff is very low because they are not paid as and when due. The workers are disenchanted and frustrated and this has caused great disaffection between the workers and the hospital management. A staff union leader in the hospital, who pleaded anonymity because of fear of being persecuted, said: “We are being owed for six months; we received our last salary in May. We have not been paid leave allowance for 2011. The management still owes 2013 and 2014 leave allowances. They were supposed to pay this money from the internally generated revenue and they cannot deny that we are not generating revenue. We are working here; we collect the money and pay into designated banks, so they cannot say we are not getting money. The Abia State University Teaching Hospital is generating money but the problem is that the management has its personal interest. That is why they have refused to pay.
“The salaries and other entitlements are owed despite the fact that the workforce is dwindling. We used to have over 1,000 workers but due to retirements without replacement, the staff strength is going down on a monthly basis. And there is no employment. We generate a lot of revenue here that could even be used to pay the salaries of junior workers or alternate the payment of salaries of the whole workers on a monthly basis but management uses the money as it likes. They give all manner of excuses like saying they used the money to buy diesel and maintain generators, among other frivolous excuses.”
Asked what happens to the subvention the institution gets from the government, he said: “Abia State gets its statutory allocation from where we are supposed to get our subvention on a monthly basis. But when the money gets to the state, the government distributes it the way it likes, gives money to ministries it likes. For us here, we received our May subvention this October. The subvention that the state government agreed to give ABSUTH is N150million but on paper it is N179 million. What I mean is that the amount on paper is N179 million but what actually comes in is N150 million and the subvention is not regular. That is why we are being owed six months now.”
Intimidation
Another leader of the union explained that it is not as if they were not doing anything about their precarious situation but the powers-that-be chastise them with snakes and scorpions, so to say. His words: “The union has written to government and made several protests on paper. When we plan to go on demonstration, what management would do was to bring in the police to arrest us. About two weeks ago, police whisked away our chairman and secretary when we planned to demonstrate over non-payment of salaries, leave allowances and Ebola allowance. We did a letter to the Police Area Commander in Aba, the Area Commander asked our leaders to channel the letter to the Commissioner of Police so that we could demonstrate peacefully according to the law and we did that. We wrote to the Commissioner of Police, we wrote to the SSS but along the line, the police turned around to say that we were planning an illegal demonstration. So, they arrested our leaders and asked us not to demonstrate.”
It was gathered that the issue of non-payment of salaries involves workers across board. “Every staffer of ABSUTH, including those of the Health Management Board, is being owed six months salary. There is no exception. We are pleading with the state government to pay our salaries because a workman deserves his wage. Let them pay workers their salaries so that they would be able to feed their families.
“Due to the high level of hunger here, as a result of non-payment of salaries, nobody is talking about or remembering promotion. Promotion in this institution is still another war on its own because management released the promotions of 2007 and 2008 in 2014. Those of 2009 and 2010 are still hanging till today. They have taken the exercise; they have conducted the interviews and all that. We learnt that the Establishment Department has returned the marking but management is still hiding it. This, coupled with non-payment of salaries, has dampened the morale of staff because, naturally, incentives motivate workers. If you employ somebody in 2007 on HATTIS 1 and that person is still there, spent close to eight years in service without promotion, that person will not put in his or her best because the person has been discouraged,” an official of the hospital disclosed.
The non-payment of salaries is having a negative effect on the workers and their families. Consider this lamentation from an ABSUTH staffer: “The thing has become a huge problem. Our children now sit at home; they do not go to school because we cannot afford their bills. Even feeding has become a tough task. What we do is that we go to the market and negotiate with our customers, who sell foodstuffs to us on credit. They know us in the markets as ABSUTH staff who do not receive salaries at the end of the month and they give us the food stuffs on credit, on humanitarian grounds. That is the way we have been surviving because there is nothing else to do. Most of us here, our wives are now doing all sorts of menial jobs to take care of the family. Women have become breadwinners even when their husbands are alive and working. For instance, the wife of one of our union leaders hawks snacks and soft drinks within the hospital premises to feed her family. Ironically, some of our colleagues beg her to sell to them on credit because their pockets are empty; you know, hunger can diminish one’s self-respect.”
Different tales
However, the medical doctors fare better, as they have other things to fall back on. According to a source, “the non-payment of salaries is not affecting medical doctors the way it is affecting others and that could be the reason the doctors are not putting pressure on government. The doctors don’t feel the situation the way others do because they have their private clinics or clinics where they also work. So, if we go on strike, it is an added advantage to them. If we go on strike, the patients will rush to their private clinics. That is why they seem not to care about what is happening at ABSUTH.”
Another source further disclosed that some sacked workers have gone to court to challenge their dismissal. The source said: “Some sacked workers have taken the state government to court. Seven out of the 13 doctors who were among several other sacked ABSUTH workers have taken the state government to court. The crux of the matter was that sometime in 2008, the sacked workers were engaged by the state government and deployed to ABSUTH. But after one and half years, the said workers were relieved of their appointments because they were allegedly illegally employed. This is despite the fact that a top gun of the hospital was the chairman of the board that interviewed and employed them. The workers are alleging that they were not paid for the period they worked before they were sacked. Judgment in the case is billed for December.
Appeal
Meanwhile, the distraught workers are appealing to the government to bail them out. “Abia State government should come into this place, pay salaries of workers, revive this place and remove politics. They should not bring politics into a health institution like this. Over the years, this administration has demonstrated interest in labour. It picks a group of people who would protect their interests and present themselves as the leaders of the workers outside the duly elected union leaders. Government now use these people who do not care about the welfare of the workers; they try to dethrone the elected officers whose tenure has not elapsed. But we will continue to pray and hope that the backlog of our salary arrears is paid before the end of the tenure of this administration,” a union leader said.
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