Emmanuel Thomas
September 8, 2015 – Dozens of midwives in Lagos State on Monday marched to the Lagos State Governors office and the Lagos State House of Assembly protesting refusal of the Lagos State Government to pay them their 20 month salary arrears.
The money is 12 months for 2013 and 8 months for 2015.
The midwives armed themselves with placards where they inscribed messages such as “Reduced Maternal and Child Mortality, midwife is the answer, pay us our allowances; MSS midwives demand payment of salaries, Jan – December 2013 and Jan – December 2015; Governor Ambode, Pay MSS allowances; MSS midwives, no pay, no work, Gov. Ambode please pay our salaries; Jan 2013 – Dec 2014, Jan 2015 till August 2015, not paid, Gov. Ambode please help”, among others.
The midwives argued that they have left the comfort of their homes into the interior for the sake of saving lives but that government has neglected them by reneging on agreement to pay their salaries.
Speaking in behalf of the workers, Mrs. Beatrice Iloegbunam said they were employed by the federal government in 2010 to work under the millennium development goal to help to reduce maternal and child mortality in the village.
She argued that their salaries are paid by the three tiers of government in a ratio of FG N40,000, State N37,500 while the local governments beefs it up with some stipends as it suits them.
She said that the state government did not pay them until 2014 after their demonstration and that government skipped payment for 2013 with some months also missing in 2014.
“Most of us were posted into the rural areas and we have to travel about 119 kilometres to get to where we work. I travel 119 kilometres to get to where I work, in rural setting. There is no electricity and we did deliveries touching lives to ensure that mortality rate is reduced in the village and for us to do that and nobody has come out to tell us sorry we have no money. So we are fed up hence we came here”, she said.
In their letter, “Appeal for the payment of the MSS salary arrears for the year 2013 and January 2015 till date, signed by Mrs. Beatrice Ajayi, the midwives appealed to the Lagos State Governor, Mrs. Ambode to pay them all the arrears.
“We wish to appeal to you sir to use your good office to pay ut our outstanding salary arrears for January to December 2013 and January 2015 till date.
“We are midwives employed under the Midwives Service Scheme which commenced in February 2010. We were deployed to primary healthcare centres of Lagos State to reach out and sustain grassroots healthcare.
“We have worked tirelessly in ensuring the reduction of maternal and child mortality and morbidity rate in Lagos State at the detriment of our health and lives without salary…
“Please help our pathetic situation and arise to look into the oppressive neglect of our wellbeing. We are finding it difficult to transport ourselves to our various places of work and to meet our needs. We made several appeals to the last administration”, she said in the letter.
We gathered that out of over 167 recruited, most of them have resigned, leaving most PHC with just two midwives.
