The Honourable Minister of Interior,
Federal Ministry of Interior (FMOI),
Block F, Old Federal Secretariat,
Area 1, P.M.B. 7007, Garki, Abuja.
Phone: 09-6713526.
E-mail: info@interior.gov.ng.
Sir,
NURSES CONGRATULATE YOU ON YOUR DESEVERD APPOINTMENT AS THE HONOURABLE MINISTER OF INTERIOR AND PASSIONATELY IMPLORE YOU TO URGENTLY INTERVENE TO END THE PERENNIAL INJUSTICES NURSES SUFFER IN THE MINISTRY
We are delighted to extend our warm Nightingalic congratulations to you over your recent appointment by President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, to serve the country in another great capacity as the Honourable Minister of Interior. It was the special vigour and hard work you elaborated in the past in other realms of service to the country that paved way for your elevation to this new post to help the country solve its internal challenges that are growing in complexity at this auspicious moment in our national life. We give all glory to God for this positive development and wish you every success in your new assignment.
2. However, we wish to draw your esteemed attention to a perennial injustice nurses have suffered in the Ministry of Interior for your urgent intervention.
3. We make haste to call your esteemed attention to this injustice because of the inclination that neither you nor President Muhammadu Buhari (who appointed you to this post) condones or adulates injustice and marginalization.
4. On this very issue in question, we had written the Ministry twice vide our letters Ref Nos UGONSA/018/FMOI/01 & UG/NAT/19/ FMOI/01 dated 18th May, 2018 and 4th March, 2019 respectively, yet the injustice persists unaddressed.
5. The issue is the inexplicable delay in implementation of Federal Government of Nigeria’s service circulars for nurses by the Federal Ministry of Interior despite the ministry being in the know of such circulars.
6. Extant circulars for placement of nurses in the Civil/Public Service of the Federation stipulate that the entry point of Registered Nurses (RN) with Bachelor of Nursing Science (B.N.Sc) degree post-NYSC (National Youth Service Corps) is CONHESS 08 (.i.e. Grade Level 09) as evidenced by the following circulars herewith attached for your on-the-spot attention and confirmation:
(a). Circular, Ref No. HCSF/EIR/CND/S.100/ST/97 dated September 8, 2016 from the
office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (HCSF) (attached herewith as Annexure A).
(b). Circular, Ref No.C6093/T/13 dated 19th June, 2017, from Federal Ministry of Health
(FMOH) [attached herewith as Annexure B].
(c). Circular Ref No. C.6093/T/16 dated February 20, 2018 from FMOH (attached
herewith as Annexure C).
(d). Circular Ref No. C2920/5.3/C.2/1/155 dated 5th February, 2019 from the FMOH
(attached herewith as Annexure D).
(e). Circular, Ref No. B63279/S.7/II/T/273 dated 24th April, 2002 from the office of the
HCSF (attached herewith as Annexure E).
(f). A letter by the FMOH to a Chief Medical Director (CMD) on entry point placement of
graduate nurses (RN with B.N.Sc/B.Sc.Nursing) on CONHESS 08 (attached herewith
as Annexure F).
(g). The Implementation Guide for Internship Programme for graduates of B.N.Sc degree
from the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN), the statutory regulatory
body for nursing in Nigeria (page 6 attached herewith as Annexure G).
(h). Industrial Arbitration Panel (IAP) award of the year 1981, which granted that the
profession of Nursing is on parity with that of Pharmacy in Nigeria, as is the case in
Great Britain from the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (attached herewith as
Annexure H).
7. It is very painful, inexcusable and inexplicable that the current entry point placement of CONHESS 08 post-NYSC of Registered Nurses(RN) with B.N.Sc/B.Sc. Nursing, that came into effect since year 2016, is yet to be implemented in any of the services/agencies under the Ministry of Interior such as the Nigerian Correctional (Prisons) Service (NCS), Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC), Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), and the Nigeria Fire Service (NFS).
8. For example the advert for recruitment of officers into the Nigerian Prison Service (now known as Nigeria Correctional Service) made by the Civil Defence, Fire, Immigration, and Prisons Services Board (CDFIBP) on Daily Trust Newspaper of Monday 30 April, 2018 aberrantly placed all Registered Nurses (including those with B.N.Sc/B.Sc.Nursing degree) on CONHESS 06 in a bizarre disobedience to the extant law that prescribes CONHESS 08 for Registered Nurses(RN) with B.N.Sc/B.Sc.Nursing degree post-NYSC (please kindly refer Annexure I for the Nigerian Prisons Service advert).
9. This year, 2019, CDFIBP, in its current advert for recruitment into the NSCDC (made online via https://cdfipb.careers/jobs/civil-defence), trampled again upon the law and listed the entry point of all Registered nurses and midwives, including the graduates of B.N.Sc/B.Sc.Nursing degree, as CONHESS 07 without specifying CONHESS 08 as the entry point for the Registered Nurses (RN) with B.N.Sc/B.Sc.Nursing post-NYSC, as stipulated by the extant circulars (please kindly refer Annexure J for the NSCDC advert).
10. Compounding the woes of nurses in the Ministry of Interior is the suppressive placement by CDFIBP of all nurses, including those with university degree in nursing, in the inspectorate cadre whereas the university graduates of other core healthcare disciplines such as Pharmacy, Medicine, Dentistry, Optometry, etc, are all placed in the superintendent cadre (please refer to the attached adverts. i.e. Annexure I & J). This anomalous and provocative behaviour by CDFIBP and other board of agencies/services/parastatals under the Ministry of Interior is totally in defiance of the verdict of the gazzeted Industrial Arbitration Panel (IAP) Award of year 1981that granted that the profession of nursing is on parity with that of Pharmacy in Nigeria as is the case in Great Britain (please refer Annexure H). It is also reeks of either a deliberate feigning of ignorance of existence of baccalaureate and post-baccalaureate nursing degrees registrable by the Nursing & Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN) or a mischievous sinister plot to cast the nursing degree (.i.e. B.N.Sc/B.Sc.Nursing) as inferior to other bachelor degrees.
11. This issue is of grave concern as par uncertainty enveloping the applicability of rule of law and engagement of due process in the Ministry of Interior that is otherwise supposed to be a bastion of rule of law, equity and fairness.
12. We in the nursing community are very appalled by this ugly development in the Ministry of interior and passionately implore your urgent intervention to put things in the right perspective.
13. Our people are already agitated and find it difficult to endure a day longer without having what is duly their right granted by the Ministry of Interior and it will not be in a good light that the implementation of the circulars came in subject of protest, picketing and “placard carrying”.
PRAYER
We most respectfully implore your urgent intervention to end the perennial injustice nurses suffer in the Federal Ministry of Interior by using your good office to compel CDFIBP and other boards of agencies/parastatals/services under the Ministry to
1. implement CONHESS 08 (.i.e. Grade Level 09) as the entry point for Registered Nurses (RN) possessing B.N.Sc/B.Sc.Nursing degree in line with the provision of the extant circulars of the Nigerian Government.
2. upgrade to CONHESS 08 the existing Nurse Officers possessing B.N.Sc/B.Sc.Nursing degree who were employed before 8th September, 2016 but are still below the new base of CONHESS 08 effective from 8th September, 2016 (being the date of release of the circular REF No. HCSF/EIR/CND/S.100/ST/97 by the office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation .i.e. Annexure A) as prescribed by the civil service circular, Ref No. B63279/S.7/II/T/273 dated 24th April, 2002 (.i.e. Annexure E).
3. upgrade all graduate nurses (i.e. RN with B.N.Sc/B.Sc.Nursing degree) who were wrongly employed below the new base of CONHESS 08 after 8th September, 2016 to CONHESS 08 effective from the date of their employment as prescribed by the civil service circular, Ref No. B63279/S.7/II/T/273 dated 24th April, 2002 (i.e. Annexure E).
4. employ the university graduates of nursing (.i.e. RN possessing B.N.Sc/B.Sc.Nursing degree) on the superintendent cadre as done for the university graduates of other core healthcare disciplines.
Accept please the assurances of our highest regards as we heartily wish you a successful and rewarding tenure!
Signed:
CHIEF (HON.) S.E.O. EGWUENU NURSE G.I. NSHI
National President National Secretary
No comments:
Post a Comment