Primary healthcare workers across the 21 local government areas of Kogi State have decried the continued payment of percentage salaries in the state.
In a statement issued in Lokoja on Sunday, the State Secretary of Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN), Comrade Rose Momoh, said primary health workers in the local governments have been collecting 30 to 35 percent salaries for the past two years.
Momoh said the salary Kogi state government is paying health workers at the local government level cannot take care of their transport from home to workplace, not to talk of bringing food on the table for the family to survive.
She added that the health workers had the worst recently when they were paid 25 percent of their January salary in 2022.
”We can no longer bear this continuous hardship we are facing. Health workers risk their lives every day to safe others, yet, their salary is nothing to write home about. Who have we offended? Is this what is obtainable in other states?
“Our demands is that, the government should complete the process of Primary Health Care under one roof and move the PHC workers and their salaries to State Primary Health Care Development Agency (SPHCDA) immediately. We are also demanding that primary health care workers be paid 100 percent like their State counterparts,” the statement added.
The union appealed to Kogi state government and health partners in the state to come to their aid as they continue to lose their members on daily basis due to hardship the percentage salaries has posed on them.
MHWUN threatened that health workers across the LGAs will down tool if their demands for improved salary is not met by the state government.
