Mazi Obinna Ichita, Member of Abia State House of Assembly representing Aba South constituency and the Leader of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the state has called for the resignation of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu and his deputy over the 12 months salaries owed health workers.
Ichita said that the report of non payment of salaries of health workers in Abia in the past 12 months and the report of the protest by staff of Abia State Hospital Managern Board is too heavy to be ignored.
According to him, it is worrisome that such essential service providers are treated in such despicable manner as described in the report in some national dailies, that they had to publicly protest in Umuahia, the Abia State capital.
“While Abians continue to suffer the failure of Abia state government to provide basic infrastructure for the people, we can not ignore and/ or tolerate the deliberate attempt by same government to indirectly “sentence the citizens to death” through non payment of the salaries.
“I strongly agree with the majority of our people, who maintain that non-payment of salaries to any worker is against the biblical injunction that “…a worker deserves his wages” ( Mathew 10 Vs 10).
“Therefore, all men of good conscience must rise and demand immediate explanation from Abia state government as to why workers in the health management board and indeed in other agencies and establishments in Abia state are being owned many months of salary arrears, even as the state receives revenue from a plethora of source other than the statutory allocation from the federation account, details of which is in the Public domain.
“Consequently, the Abia state Commissioner for Health , the commissioner for finance as well as the Accountant General of Abia State should be relieved of their positions by the state Governor.
“This is because health workers are essential service providers, hence effort must be sustained at all times to ensure that the health of the citizens are not jeopardized in any manner, form or shape. It follows that the condition of service of essential workers should always receive priority attention from any responsible government.
That the salaries of these and other workers in Abia State have not been paid in the last 12 months is not only a demonstration of gross administrative ineptitude, it is also a sin before God.
“If the Governor of Abia State for any reason, is not willing and ready to do the needful by instilling the needed sanity in the health sector in our dear state, then the Governor, the deputy Governor and other political office holders elected under the platform of the ruling party in , who watched in silence while this gross negligence and inhuman treatment of our health workers in Abia continued, should resign their positions.
“But we know that like all known oppressors recorded in history, they will not accept this honest advice, the best thing is for the masses to force them out using our votes when the time comes. The people of Abia state must take back our state
“The government of Abia state has literarily abandoned its duty of protection of lives and properties and is fixated on the politics of 2023.
“The 2023 election in Abia will be a referendum; Our people will make a choice and will have to choose between
Bad governance vs Good governance.
“May Chukwu Okike help us to collectively restore Abia as God’s own state”.
