The members of the Nigerian Union of Allied Health Professionals had welcomed the resignation of the minister of health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu with great joy on Thursday, October 16, 2014.
The minister had tendered his resignation request so he would pursue his political ambition of the gubernatorial post in his state Ebonyi state.
Earlier on Thursday, it was reported that health workers embarked on an indefinite strike action which they blamed on the minister and the Federal Government.
The national president of NUAHP who is also vice-president of Joint Health Sector Union, Mr. Felix Faniran, who stated this while giving an update on the strike which commenced on Thursday, called on President Goodluck Jonathan not to appoint a medical doctor to pilot the affairs of the Health Ministry in Nigeria.
He pointed out that a failure to resolve the issues surrounding the strike action as soon as practicable would prompt other health workers across the nation to follow suit before the end of October which will not go down well with the nation.
Faniran said, “There will be total paralysis of the health sector. It is a happy news for us to hear that the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu resigned yesterday and we are using this forum to call on Mr President, while replacing him, in his cabinet, to ensure peace in the health sector.
“The President should consider a person from Allied Health Professionals as the replacement so that the Minister who is already there and from Nigerian Medical Association will partner with another from the non-NMA constituency for balance and harmony in the health sector.
“Since the appointment of the Chukwu as Health Minister, our health sector has not known peace. He has demonstrated that he is a nominee of the NMA and not a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, having been partisan and outrightly discriminatory of all other health professionals in favour of members of his professional constituency from the beginning till date.”
However, Chukwu’s special assistant on media and communications, Mr. Dan Nwomeh, held a view that the strike was unnecessary.
He said, “I am not aware of any notice of strike and if they say that is it the outgoing outgoing Minister of Health, Onyebuchi Chukwu that is their problem and that is the problem of the Nigerian health sector, he had already notified the President of the country of his intention to resign and the President has accepted it which will take effect from Monday, October 20.”
