By Chioma Obinna

HEALTH workers under the aegis of Nigerian Union of Allied Health Professionals, yesterday, continued with their ongoing indefinite strike warning that if the Federal Government refuses to meet their demands in the next one week, other unions in the health sector would join the strike in solidarity.

The National President of the Nigerian Union of Allied Health Professionals, NUAHP, who is also the Vice President of Joint Health Sector Union, Mr. Felix Faniran, maintained that industrial action has witnessed “total compliance” in different parts of the country including the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Complex, Ile-Ife, its national secretariat.

Faniran said, “The strike began on Thursday (last week). All our members are on strike in all parts of the country including OAUTHC. If this strike persists in the next one week, others will join us in solidarity. Already, JOHESU has alerted the government of its intention to join the strike and this time around, the consequences will be disastrous. There will be total paralysis of the health sector.”

When asked why NUAHP would continue the strike, despite the resignation of the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, to pursue his 2015 governorship ambition in Ebonyi State, Faniran said: “Our agitation was beyond Chukwu. We are calling on President Goodluck Jonathan not to appoint a medical doctor to be pilot the affairs of the Health Ministry in Nigeria. We reiterate that the President should consider a person from Allied Health Professionals as the replacement for balance and harmony in the health sector.”

The group had, among other demands, condemned the decision of the Federal Ministry of Health that only those registrable with the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria could use the designation ‘Consultant’, stressing that “it is not only a ruse, it is false, incorrect, wrong and unacceptable.”