Medical workers at the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital (OAU) in Ile-Ife, Osun State, expressed their frustration with the management, accusing them of subjecting employees to financial hardship by withholding salaries for over 10 months.
Workers who conversed with PUNCH Metro in various interviews on Wednesday said they’ve turned to begging to provide for their families, citing the financial difficulty imposed by the delay in salary payments.
Ben, one of the employees, sharing his personal struggle, said that he has been unable to support his family financially since joining the OAUTH on December 13, 2022, due to the consistent non-payment of his salary.
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“I was given an appointment letter on December 13, 2022, after completion of my medicals. I was posted to the place of my primary assignment. Since then, we have been in this sorry-case situation, no salary was paid to me. I have rented an apartment, and do a lot of things with my savings with the hope of recovering it when they start paying me, but nothing came out of it,” he said.
A fellow colleague, preferring to remain anonymous to avoid potential repercussions, shared, “Our healthcare professionals, including doctors, pharmacists, nurses, medical laboratory scientists, physiotherapists, radiographers, are departing the country due to the challenging conditions faced by those currently practicing in Nigeria.”
“Imagine a medical staff working in a Federal Government Teaching Hospital for over 10 months without being paid one kobo because we have not been captured by IPPIS due to one or two reasons best known to the ministry and the Hospital Management.
“Many lives are already miserable, staff are living in debt, families are breaking, staff are not able to pay children’s school fees, some are depressed and how do you want that same staff to attend to a patient?”
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He mentioned that, despite all attempts to get their requests addressed, they were unsuccessful. He appealed to the appropriate authorities to step in and help them out.
“In the past, various health unions, such as JOHESU, have embarked on strike actions in solidarity with the newly employed staff to persuade the management to pay salaries, but these steps have yielded no positive result because they are always forced or threatened back to work by the Ministry of Health.
“In September 2023, some officials of the Ministry of Health came to the hospital to carry out a verification exercise for the new staff. It’s 2 months ago and till this moment we have not heard from them. The staff are still working, suffering and smiling.
“To well-meaning Nigerians and the constituted authorities, please save the soul of the newly employed staff of Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital,” he concluded.
He mentioned that despite all attempts to get their requests addressed, they were unsuccessful. He appealed to the appropriate authorities to step in and help them out.
Upon reaching out, the Chief Medical Director of OAUTH, John Okeniyi, guided our correspondent to a tweet from the Minister of Health, Muhammed Pate. He mentioned that he couldn’t provide an official statement on the matter.
“I am not able to grant you any interviews formally or otherwise at this time because the Minister of Health has waded into this matter and I can only direct you to see his response to the issue on his Twitter (X) handle. I am awaiting directives from the FMoHSW,” he said.
On October 13, Pate, in a tweet from his verified X handle, mentioned that the investigation had wrapped up and assured that the matter would be resolved very soon.
“We are addressing the OAUTH situation. The investigation has just been completed on this unfortunate situation. We understand the difficulties being faced by numerous innocent health workers and will do our best to resolve it equitably,” he tweeted.