Worker unions of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), on Thursday, protested the reinstatement of the suspended Executive Secretary of the scheme Usman Yusuf, by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The workers under the aegis of Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSUN), and Medical and Health Workers of Nigeria (MHWUN), NHIS branch, converged on the NHIS office in Utako, Abuja protesting and calling on President Buhari to revisit the Executive Secretary investigation.
It would be a recalled that in July 2017, the Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole directed the Chief Executive Officer of National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Usman Yusuf, to proceed on three months suspension with immediate effect, over allegations of embezzling over N700million.
Chairman, ASCSUN, NHIS Branch, Abdurazak Omomeji, who addressed journalists on behalf of the union of the union said, that President Buhari may not have been briefed properly and therefore urged him take a second look at the reinstatement of the NHIS boss.
“We want to say that our President Muhammadu Buhari, we elected him, we have trust in him, that he is a person of integrity. But whatever is good for the gander is also good for the goose,” he stated.
“We are calling on the President, that this case of Yusuf Usman needs to be revisited. The President has not been briefed very well. We know him, that when the case of Maina came up he strictly took the necessary action. We are calling on our President, President Muhammadu Buhari, whom we know is a man of honour, a man of integrity, a man of Justice, should please take a second look in the reinstatement of this Professor Yipusuf Usman.
‘Immediately this man came, he came on the will of ethnicity, he came on the will of religion. The President needs to revisit this case; and since we know that the case of Yusuf is being investigated by the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The President should wait for the outcome of this investigation, if he is not found guilty, because he who must come to equity must come with a clean hand. Yusuf hand is not clean”.
“On the allegation that the letter of reinstatement was signed by the Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, he said “We can’t tell the President how he runs his administration or his secretariat. Even if the letter was signed by the Chief of Staff, I believe for the sake of fairness and justice, you can’t be under investigation or standing trial and be allowed to stay in office. Just a few days ago, a high ranking member of parliament in Britain, he came late to the House while his matter is being discussed, he resigned. This is issue of integrity, this is the matter of who you are; we are not against anybody but what we are saying is that we are only ready to work with somebody who will not pollute and corrupt us. We know what he has done underground.”
Chairman, Medical and Health Workers of Nigeria, NHIS Branch, Olawuyi Kayode, also urged the Federal government to reverse the reinstatement, “Therefore, we demand that the Federal Government should reverse the reinstatement if they want to have Peace, tranquility and industrial harmony in NHIS. We have been law abiding, we have never in the history of NHIS created any problem and the reason is that we all play by the rule. But from all indication, the reinstatement of Usman Yusuf will cause Chaos in this scheme. To ensure industrial harmony, fairness, justice and sustain the war against corruption, they should allow the man to go and sort himself out of the anti-corruption cases he has with the EFCC. We demand a total reversal to ensure industrial harmony in NHIS”.
He stressed, “There is erroneous belief on the money in NHIS, the money belong to enrollees. Our labour centres at the national level are handling the second issue; that is the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress. What happens is that there is this erroneous belief about the fund, the money is never for government, it belongs to the enrollees. When TSA was introduced in September 2015, government directed all its agencies to move their money to TSA, the NHIS complied, we hope that in the long run, the administration will resolve it but not, up to this moment.
” I want to put on record that in the history of the Organisation, we are the second most Organisation that contributed highest money to the TSA because of our prudence, transparency and efficiency, all together. We remitted over N145 billion to TSA Account”.
They accused Yusuf of causing confusion in NHIS in order to have access to money in the agency,
“Our offence is that we remitted so much money and someone came in, saw this money and got intoxicated all he has to do is to create confusion to be able to spend this money. He came in and he has no programme, no focus and no direction. This is enrollees’ money.
“All his activities when he came shows bias and not upright. He seconded somebody born in 1984 to Level 15, Assistant Director, compared to someone who finished University in 1984 in Level 16.
“This man was in EFCC two days back, his passport was seized there, and you reinstated him the following day, what is fairness in that, we cannot continue like this”, he said.
Kayode said their demand is that Usman Yusuf reinstatement should be reversed with immediate effect.
LAIDE AKINBOADE-ORIERE
