Editorial
Health Workers’ Strike And Salary Disparity
As members of the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria and other allied staff in Rivers State continued to stay away from work over alleged deductions from their salaries, the situation calls for a holistic view of this subject that appears to play up every now and then.
While the health workers are still on strike, a cross-section of civil servants also cried out over deductions in their June 2013 salaries that they could not find reasons for. This is not to talk about allegations that some other categories of public servants in the state may also have to suffer salary cut.
The situation if not properly handled can cause more confusion and fear in the public service and even throw mud on the unprecedented development taking place in Rivers State. Indeed, that labour leaders in the state would fail to handle the points of dis-agreement to avoid a full blown trade dispute is rather regrettable.
Interestingly, the Commissioner of Information and Communications, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari had explained the action of government and exposed plans by some people to poison the minds of workers at the tertiary educational institutions owned by the Rivers State Government.
Repeatedly, the Head of the Civil Service of Rivers State, Barr. Samuel T. LongJohn had also called for understanding as the salary verification exercise was not to reduce anybody’s salary, but to correct irregularities discovered in the system. In fact, his analysis of the situation makes the whole conflict clear and easily reconcilable.
But as it is often said, when two elephants fight, the grass suffers: The effect of the strike by health workers in Rivers State has become rather obvious, dangerous on the general population and un-acceptable. Clearly, the unions and government can continue to negotiate without staff embarking on strike. They cannot continue to throw stones into the market place and hope to hurt non-relations only.
That is why we call on the health workers to reconsider their approach, return to work and attend to the health needs of the people, while their union leaders continue to find ways of convincing government on why the envisaged changes should not take place.
On the other hand, we expect that the Rivers State Government would do everything in its powers to immediately address the concerns of the health workers. This is more so because, apart from the mileage the state government had covered in the health sector, its commitment to the health of the people should not be allowed to fall on the face.
But the root of the matter must also be treated with utmost responsibility. A situation where disparities are encouraged in the salaries of persons who work for the same government, patronise same market and follow the same set of rules cannot be the best. Worse still, for the system to make some professions look more important than others, can only raise questions and easily create weak links.
The Tide has been inundated with questions on why special salary scales should be given to some professionals under the public service. People have not stopped asking why Directors in some ministries would be paid GL17, while the rest are peaked on GL16. It has been difficult to rationalise why staff in some ministries on GL12 would earn more than a Director in other ministries.
While the confusion of that situation lingers, some new agencies established by the state government also pay their staff so differently. In some cases, these agencies which also work for government take double or even more of the salary of the normal civil servants.
Under the circumstance, health workers may never understand why the financial benefits they enjoy should be taken away from them rightly or wrongly. If the point must be made, the civil servant is paid so poorly in Nigeria. Sadly, as it tends to criminalise the workforce, governments across the country look for every reason to further remove from the salaries of the civil servant.
Even when the decision was reached to raise the National Minimum Wage to N18,000.00, some states ambushed labour and tactically made the increase meaningless. In fact, labour has insisted that no state actually implemented the National Minimum Wage.
In other that simple things like this do not continue to embarrass the system and jeopardise the health of the people or paralyse social services, government must go beyond the now recurrent verification to actually harmonising the pay system in the public service across the country.
There are moments in the life of a legislature when plain speaking becomes a public service. Senator Adams Oshiomhole provided such a moment on the floor of the Senate when he accused the Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, of manifestly neglecting critical federal arteries in Edo and Delta States, and implored his colleagues to prevail on the Minister to adopt a more equitable and genuinely national approach to road infrastructure delivery. It was blunt, it was uncomfortable, and it was necessary.
The specifics of his complaint deserve restating. Drawing attention to the recent approval of some 20 new road projects despite the parlous state of existing ones, the former Edo State governor lamented that Nigerians cannot travel from Benin to Warri, Benin to Asaba, Benin to Auchi, or Auchi to Okene without encountering severe distress. He alleged a deliberate omission of these corridors from the national budget in the last three years, save for palliative interventions directed by President Bola Tinubu through tax credit arrangements. His question — “What have we done wrong?” — resonates far beyond the chambers of the National Assembly.
We lend our full and unequivocal support to that call. The Auchi-Benin Road, for instance, has been in a deplorable and near-impassable condition for several years, turning what should be a two-hour journey into an all-day ordeal of broken axles, extortionate fares, and despondent commuters. The media have, on multiple occasions, chronicled the suffering of motorists, traders, and students who ply that route. To describe it as a federal road today is to stretch the meaning of the term beyond recognition.
This pattern of sidelining is not confined to Edo or Delta. Even here in Rivers State, the disposition of the Federal Ministry of Works has left much to be desired, particularly along the Eleme axis of the East-West Road. That road, which ought to be a flagship of federal presence in the Niger Delta, has remained in a wretched state for long. Those who use it daily — workers at the Eleme Petrochemical Complex, the two refineries, Onne Port, and the countless ancillary industries — can attest to its deterioration. Work has proceeded in fits and starts without the sustained urgency such a strategic road demands.
The Eleme stretch is not a mere intra-state byway. It is the gateway to the nation’s economic jugular. According to the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing’s 2023 Highway Condition Survey, only about 35 per cent of the country’s 36,000 kilometres of federal roads are rated as being in good or fair condition, with the remainder classified as poor or very poor. The East-West Road, conceived in the 1970s to bind the entire Niger Delta, remains unfinished in critical sections more than four decades after. If it had been treated as a priority, the perennial gridlock, carnage, and economic loss on the Eleme-Refinery junction would have long been consigned to history.
The irony is as painful as it is glaring. The Niger Delta remains the goose that lays the golden eggs. Data from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative [NEITI 2023 Oil and Gas Audit] show that the region still accounts for over 78 per cent of Nigeria’s federally collected export earnings and about 65 per cent of total government revenue. The National Bureau of Statistics [NBS Foreign Trade Report Q4 2024] similarly confirms that crude oil continues to dominate export receipts. By every metric of equity and economic logic, a region that sustains the national purse deserves first-rate consideration in the allocation of infrastructure, not afterthoughts and tokenism.
Road infrastructure is not largesse to be dispensed by favour; it is the skeleton upon which commerce, cohesion, and citizenship hang. When contracts are concentrated in one geopolitical zone while other zones are left to contend with craters, it erodes trust in the federation itself. The World Bank’s Nigeria Development Update [June 2023] estimated that poor transport connectivity inflates the cost of moving goods by up to 40 per cent and costs the Nigerian economy an estimated $1.5 billion annually in lost man-hours and vehicle maintenance. If we profess to be one country, then equity must be the compass that guides key institutions before any project is executed. Development must spread round, not pool in one place as though other regions do not matter.
There is also a grave security dimension that can no longer be ignored. The deplorable condition of federal roads has become a veritable enabler of criminality. The NBS Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey reported over 2.5 million incidents of kidnapping-related occurrences nationally, with transport workers identifying bad road spots as prime ambush points. When vehicles are forced to crawl at 10 kilometres per hour through failed sections at Auchi, Sapele Road, or Eleme, they become sitting ducks for armed gangs. Fixing bad roads, therefore, is not merely about convenience; it is about safeguarding lives.
By his intervention, Senator Oshiomhole has hit the nail on the head and reminded Minister Umahi of a fundamental constitutional truth: public office is held in trust. The Ministry of Works is not a personal estate where contracts are awarded according to whim or political convenience. It is a national institution funded by the collective resources of Nigerians, including the oil and gas rents from the very communities whose roads are now neglected. The Minister must demonstrate balance, transparency, and a pan-Nigerian outlook in the distribution of projects that impact the daily existence of citizens. Selective neglect breeds suspicion, and suspicion is corrosive at a time when the nation is preaching unity, oneness, equity, and justice.
Consequently, the National Assembly must go beyond rhetoric and assert its oversight powers with vigour. Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution [as amended] empower the legislature to investigate and expose any maladministration in the execution of federal projects. If an office holder is not acting rightly, it is the duty of the Senate and the House of Representatives to call him to order. Oversight must not be reduced to budget approval ceremonies; it must translate to field verification, public hearings, and insistence that the Federal Character principle, as enshrined in Section 14(3) of the Constitution, reflects in road awards.
Let the Auchi-Okene, Benin-Warri, Benin-Asaba, and Eleme East-West gangways be restored to motorable dignity. Let priority be given to completing existing, economically vital roads before embarking on new ones. If those who, through their resources, sustain the federation are sidelined in the distribution of tangible dividends, it tells poorly of our nationhood. Bad roads must be fixed, and they must be fixed now, with fairness as the guiding standard.
