Health Workers Insist on Sack of JUTH CMD
About 500 workers of the Jos University Teaching Hospital, under the aegis of Joint Heath Sector Unions have taken to the streets in protest against the administrative style of the hospital’s Chief Medical Director, Prof. Edmund Banwat.
During the protest, which threw the hospital into confusion, the workers announced the JUTH Director of Administration, Bitrus Danjuma, as the new CMD, following the expiration of the tenure of Banwat on December 31, 2017.
But Danjuma, who was asked to address the workers as ‘CMD,’ said, “The appointment of the CMD is a presidential appointment and it is restricted to qualified medical personnel.
“I, therefore, want to say that nobody and none of us here has the powers to appoint a CMD and I can never be one by virtue of my occupation. So, let us have this correction clearly.”
The workers said every emolument received by Banwat after December should be returned to the hospital’s coffers, adding that for the past nine months, JUTH had neither admitted patients nor performed any surgery.
But the embattled Banwat said his request for tenure extension had been approved by the Ministry of Health.
The said letter of extensionwas dated November 13, 2017, when his appointment had yet to lapse.
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The five unions, which make up JOHESU, are the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives, Non-Academic Staff Union, Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria and Senior Staff Association of Universities, Teaching Hospitals, Research Institutes and Allied Institutions.
The aggrieved workers carried placards with inscriptions such as: “Stop the deduction of shift allowance”, “Federal Ministry of Health is empowering illegal stay of Prof. Banwat”, “FG, come and rescue JUTH”, “Restore Nurses shift allowance”, “LOCUM in Nursing is an insult to the profession” and “JUTH is in a coma, no CMD.”
The National General Secretary, National Union of Allied Health Professionals, Oluwatuyi Obisesan, also insisted that Bankwat must refund every emolument he received since his tenure elapsed.
He said, “The tenure of the CMD is tenured and has expired on December 31 2017. But surprisingly, despite a letter from the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation that any tenured appointment should be strictly adhered to, the CMD of JUTH is still on seat.
“I want to add that every emolument that he has collected from January 1, 2018 should be returned to the coffers of JUTH or else, the staff will not stop at this protest but will go further.
“In line with the law, the CMD should hand over to the Director of Administration whenever his tenure lapses. We are therefore not recognising any illegal activity here. So, as far as we are concerned, since the CMD is out of office, the next person should be the Director of Administration who should be acting as the CMD.”