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COVID-19: FCT public health workers threaten strike over owed 7 months allowance

Published

6 years ago

December 24, 2020

This is not a good time for the country’s health system with the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic ravaging countries all over the world.

The Public Health workers in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) are not motivated to deliver their best.

The FCT Administration owes the Health workers seven (7) months hazard allowance, a situation that has demoralized the workers, it was learnt.

The workers who are at the forefront of combating Covid-19 have only been paid the N50, 000 hazard allowances for three months -March to May 2020.

According to the few of the Health workers who volunteered to speak, though, under the condition of anonymity, the administration has been using subtle blackmail to keep them working and quiet.

They said what we hear every time the issue comes up is that the allowance remains a privilege and not a right.

Besides, the authorities are fast in reminding them of their monthly salaries that is still running.

The workers also complained about the inferior Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) supplied to them.

The PPE, they chorused “are fake, substandard and unsafe for the kind of work they expect us to carry out. Yet, no one will listen.”
They explained that times at the point of removing the PPE, it gets torn, which further exposed them to danger.

Their fear became heightened when the Director of Public Health landed in the isolation Centre.

“Despite the kind of treatment we receive from the authorities, we are still doing our job. But it is incumbent on them to do the needful and not continue to cajole us.

“Everybody knows that we are at the forefront of the exposure as we deal with patients of the virus yet we are denied our allowance on the excuse that there is no money for now.

“At times when we request for our allowance, we would be told that it is a privilege and not a right. So we should not push it too far.”

Apart from the hazard allowance been owed, the workers said the administration is still owing promotion arrears since 2016.

“Also imagine the kind of PPE they supplied for the work. They even exposed us the more. The PPEs are either fake or inferior yet we don’t have a choice than to use it. Look now, the Director of Public Health has found himself in isolation Centre. The nature of his work also exposes him.

“So you can see the nature of the work we do. Nobody around us is safe, yet we are not given our dues as at when due. Some of us were even optimistic that the arrears would be paid with our salaries but we were disappointed. We will now go back to our families that there is nothing to show for the overtime and risk work we have been doing for the past seven months. It’s unfair but what can we do.”

Meanwhile, the FCT administration has reactivated the Idu isolation Centre as a result of the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic, while other centres, Asokoro, Karu are expected to come up as well.

The centres were shut following the reduction of incidences of the virus in September 2020.

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Alake Inaugurates Nigeria-US Solid Minerals Committee, Dismisses $700bn Claim, Says No Assets Sold

Published

1 hour ago

October 28, 2026

The Gleamer

Joel Ajayi

The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake, on Tuesday inaugurated the Nigeria-United States Committee on Strategic Cooperation in the Solid Minerals Sector in Abuja, dismissing reports that Nigeria sold $700 billion worth of solid minerals to the US.

The inauguration followed the strategic cooperation framework established between Nigeria and the United States during the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York.

In a statement issued on Wednesday by the Head PRESS and Public Relations Department Mrs. Kania Maliki Andeyaba stated that, Alake in the Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, signed with the US is a government-to-government platform to facilitate business-to-business engagements between American investors and Nigerian local operators, not a sale of assets.

Harping on the importance of the solid minerals sector to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s economic diversification agenda, he noted that the administration was committed to reducing dependence on a mono-product economy through the sustainable development of Nigeria’s vast mineral resources.

According to him, the Nigeria–US partnership as a strategic initiative to attract investment, promote technology transfer, strengthen local mineral processing and create employment opportunities.

“There is no sale of any Nigerian asset. There’s nothing exchanging hands,” Alake declared.

“We created a platform to facilitate mingling of US investment ventures with Nigeria’s local operators. It is in the public domain. We signed it in public and published it in four or five national newspapers.”

The Minister said reports claiming the US was coming to take over Nigeria’s minerals and security architecture were untrue at best and products of riotous imagination at worst.

Explaining the policy thrust, Alake said Africa has historically held the short end of the stick in global economic transactions, and Nigeria is determined to change that model.

“We have the resources, the critical elements the world needs to transit to clean energy. So we are creating a new paradigm — you bring your capital, expertise and technology, to match with our natural resources and create a win-win situation . The investor gains, Nigeria gains.’’he said.

Nigeria, he stressed, had operated a mono-cultural economy dependent on oil, while solid minerals were exploited informally — with ores taken “from pit to port” without value addition.

Alake said government has now made local processing mandatory, refusing to grant mineral titles to investors without a clear pathway to processing in Nigeria.

He said the policy led to the springing up of processing factories, including the largest lithium processing plant in West Africa commissioned recently in Nasarawa by the Vice President, and informed the formation of the African Minerals Strategy Group.

Alake noted that investor confidence has returned due to macro-economic reforms by President Bola Tinubu that guarantee security of tenure and repatriation of profits.

He charged the committee to discharge its assignment responsibly, saying its work is strategic to achieving the President’s $1 trillion economy target.

To this end, he told the Committee to ensure effective coordination, identify investment opportunities and translate the framework into measurable outcomes capable of positioning Nigeria as a competitive player in the global solid minerals industry.

In his welcome address, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Engr. Faruk Yusuf Yabo, said the inauguration translates growing bilateral engagements into a structured framework for practical cooperation and investment mobilization

Economic Officer at the US Embassy, Jonathan Baas, said President Donald Trump has prioritized three areas for US embassies — energy, artificial intelligence/super intelligence, and critical minerals.

Baas said Washington’s direction is to work with partners to secure critical supply chains while ensuring partners capture value.

“We just signed a contract today on looking into building AI data centres in Nigeria at the Nigerian Economic Summit. That’s the direction Washington wants us to go,” he said.

In his vote of thanks, CEO/Managing Director of Nigeria Solid Minerals Company, NSMC said that the committee

is expected to coordinate implementation, facilitate investment and monitor progress towards achieving the objectives of the Nigeria–US cooperation framework.

The inauguration reinforces the Federal Government’s commitment to repositioning the solid minerals sector as a key driver of economic diversification, industrial development and national prosperity under President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.

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