ASABA – Concerned Nurses in Delta State have drawn a battle line with the State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Mordi Ononye, over his insistence to go ahead with the Community Nursing and Midwifery programme in the state.
As Ononye insisted there was no going on the programme, especially as an initiative of the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN), the nurses, on the other hand said the public and professional call to halt same subsists.
Comrades Nurse Awele Mordi (Coordinator) and Ogbanako Mercy (Secretary) spokespersons for the group called on Governor Ifeanyi Okowa to call the Commissioner to order.
The nurses and midwives also called on the Delta State House of Assembly to investigate the motives behind the commissioner’s insistence on quackery programme when the State has eight health-related medical institutions that produce more than 800 professional healthcare workers annually from the aforementioned schools.
“Nurses in Delta state are opposed to the move, citing the over 2,000 nurses and midwives already trained but have not been employed, the government’s claim of no Rural areas in the State and the fact that the graduates from the lower cadre programme will be quacks and will pose health risks to the communities they will be exposed to”
Corroborating in a protest statement signed by Comrades David Ezugwu, State NANNM Secretary said members of NANNM are committed to the wellbeing of Delta people; hence the Governor should call the commissioner not to blackmail the Union that is protecting the health and safety of the people they pledge to protect.
