Prince Ibinabo Lazarus – Primary Health Worker
We initially demanded the formation of Primary Health Care Management Board because of unfair treatment meted on Primary Health workers by local government councils in terms of salaries and other entitlements due us.
Now that the National Assembly is trying to make local governments autonomous, let’s hope the councils can manage the health workers and health facilities since all money payable to the board must come to an end.
So, our demands have been made known to the state government which includes the implementation of the consolidated salary structure; promotion of senior staff, implementation of last promotion exercise, among others.
And the workers have resolved that we are not going back to work until all our demands are met. Health workers in local governments should be treated like their counterparts in the state. A situation where there is disparities in the salaries of health workers of the same level who are working in the same facility, simply because one is employed by the state government and the other by the local government is unacceptable.
It is my sincere wish that the state government meets our demands so that we can go back to work so as to avoid the devastating effects the strike might have on the state. Already, there is collapse of the free medical system and increased morbidity rate. I want to advice mothers not to go for vaccination at the Primary Healthcare centres because the vaccines are no longer potent.
We are appealing to well meaning citizens of the state to persuade government to grant us our demands. We are merely asking for our rights. And as far as I am concerned, Primary Health Care Service deliveries have collapsed in the state. Clients and beneficiaries should seek for service deliveries in the secondary and tertiary sectors.

Mr  Robert Ibiso – Health worker.
Government knows the conditions we gave. If the conditions are met, we have no excuse whatsoever not to go back to work. We are willing to serve the populace at any time but government should give us our due right and treat us the way we deserve. I know too well that the incumbent governor of Rivers State may not do much about the on-going strike.
For now people are still benefiting from some of our health care service deliveries despite the industrial action. But you cannot compare what is going on there with the services we provide. We were trained for this job. We were trained to carry out some services in our health facilities in order to contain the spread of contagious diseases like cholera, measles and others. Today, go to Pott Johnson, Church Hill and other health centres and you will discover that immunisation and other health service deliveries are bequeathed to our clients even though we are on strike. You can imagine the caliber of quacks used for this.
Perhaps, this is the reason government is dilly-dallying over the implementation of our rightful requests. But this might lead to a big health problem in the state if not handled urgently.
Mrs Veronica – Nurse
The health workers are demanding their right on the grounds that they have not been promoted for the past eight years without a cogent reason. There has been no employment of new technical staff to replace those who have left the service by retirement, resignation or death. Workers are not being paid their due salaries.
Nevertheless, there seems to be confusion among the health workers currently. There are those who feel oppressed by the local government council, for not effecting their demands but at the same time prefer to remain with the local government areas after the Primary Health Care Management Board was mandated to deduct the money from source and take over the payment of their salaries and other demands.
Another set of the health workers is comfortable with the arrangement by which the Primary Health Care Board, takes over the payment of their wages and allowances, though they have other demands.
The beneficiaries of the primary health care service deliveries should braze up for harder days ahead because I don’t see this tussle ending soon. The poor masses are beginning to feel the impact of the strike because immunisation rate had dropped in the state. More people are dying.
I advise that the public should appeal to the government to implement the demands of the striking workers so that they can go back to work. Their services are very essential especially to those in the rural areas who cannot assess secondary and tertiary health institutions and those who cannot afford private hospitals.
However, I will also tell the public to seek for healthcare services from the private hospitals or abroad (for those that can afford it) because the level of our health care systems is now zero.

Grace Moses – Applicant
The industrial Action embarked upon by Primary Health Workers is unfortunate and detrimental. They are punishing the poor masses. The situation could be likened to where two elephants are fighting and the grasses are suffering.
Go to some health centers in the state and see how people are suffering. Antenatal and other bills have been increased unprecedentedly. Mothers are made to pay for things and services they ought not to pay for.  Indeed the strike is causing a great hardship for everyone in our state especially pregnant women, mothers and their babies.
My sister-in-law is pregnant. She has not been going for antenatal care because the workers are not there to attend to them. For some times now, she has been having some pains, but she keeps enduring the pain at home since she can’t not afford health care services in the private sector and that can force her to seek for health care services from traditional birth attendances though she detests it.
So, government should please do something about this strike before people begin to die unnecessarily.
Annonymous – Medical Doctor
The issue is that politicians do not value the services of health workers. Every administration that comes on board treats health workers in the local government as if they are no human beings. Look at my office, I am a medical doctor and a director in the civil service, can you compare this office with that of another director in another department  in this local government or even in the state? The neglect and marginalisation is too much and I don’t know why. Health workers are the last to receive their salaries and allowances. Meanwhile the council chairmen are busy embezzling this money. For more than eight years, there has not been employment  in the primary health sector yet people have retired, some have died, many have resigned. We are grossly understaff. Yet wehen the workers labour to serve the public, they will not be paid, nor will they be promoted along with other workers in the local government.
As a director you cannot sanction an erring staff under you because you have no control over her salaries and allowances. The number of health workers is over bloated by the councils who make  money from the large number of ghost workers.
That is why NULGE and a few health workers who are benefitting from the corrupt system are fighting against the establishment of the Primary Health Management Board. They are jittery that with the board paying workers’ salaries and allowances they will no longer make their millions. The board is there to strengthen the Primary Health Sector in State, cater for the welfare of the health workers and at the same time make sure that the workers sit up and carry out their duties as they should and some enemies of progress are kicking against it. The State government has built over a hundred health centres in different parts of the state. Tell me how can the local governments manage these health institutions? The state government in its wisdom, set up the Primary Health Management Board to take charge of these health centres to make sure that the health centres are alive and active even when Amaechi’s tenure elapses.
So, for me, government should not go back on the promise of transferring health workers salaries from the local government councils to the Primary Healthcare Management Board. It is in the best interest of the generality of the workers and the public.
I will also urge government to attend to other demands of the genuine striking workers vis-à-vis the payment  of CONHESS arrears from March 2011 to June 2014; payment of HAPPS arrears; payment of 38 months unified salary structure arrears for health workers in the 23 local government areas; implementation of the last senior staff promotion among others.
When this is done, the real health workers will go back to work and things will normalise.

Mr Micheal Nnadi- Student
For me I am not feeling the impact of the strike, maybe because I don’t patronize the primary health care services or any government hospital at all. I prefer private clinics, though they are expensive, they give you quality service.
However, I don’t buy this idea of workers down tooling every now and then. Our country is becoming a country of daily strike actions and I don’t think it is good for the image of the country. The health workers should think of other ways of ironing out their differences with the government instead of punishing the poor patients. They should stop being selfish and think of the interest of those who depend on their services.
On the other hand, those in authority should try and be more responsible and reasonable. They should take workers welfare as their priority. How much are these workers even asking for? Is it half of the amount our leaders spend on politics and other frivolous ventures. I am quite  sure that if our leaders do not steal public fund, there will be enough money for all sectors of the economy.
So government and the striking workers should settle their differences and stop making life more miserable for the poor.