When the administration of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa was inaugurated on May 29, 2015, there was joy among Deltans, especially the civil servants, but little did they know that their joy will be short lived.
If given the opportunity to express themselves freely without any form of victimization, Delta state civil servants will describe governor Ifeanyi Okowa’s government as the worst since the creation of the state when compared to successive governments, especially the immediate past governor Emmanuel Uduaghan led government.
Since the inception of the Okowa led government, workers in the state, especially the council workers and primary schools teachers, have continued to live in adject poverty, from one lamentation to another as a result of draconian and inhuman policies introduced into the once enjoyable civil service as it were.
Again, apart from the sacked of over 2000 workers at inception of office, non payment of promotion arrears, salaries, among others, the introduction of Delta State Contributory Health Insurance Scheme by governor Okowa, where arbitrary deduction of workers salaries were carried out in the state without their consent, is no doubt has adjudged the government of Okowa, as not only wicked, corrupt and fraudulent, but the worst thing that has ever happened in the history of Delta state.
Delta state civil servants have continued to cry out, accusing governor Ifeanyi Okowa of using the Contributory Health Insurance Scheme to defraud them of several billions of naira without any form of commensurable services, described the action of the governor as inhuman and continuous moves to inflicting hardship on them.
HardReporters, viewed the action of governor Okowa as not only scrapping the widely accepted free mother and child care, 0-5yrs free medical care for children in the state, free medicals for pregnant women as well as the free Cesarean Section that usually cost so much for delivering mothers, initiated by his predecessor, Emmanuel Uduaghan in hospitals across the state, but a way to fraudulently amass wealth to the detriment of Deltans, especially the civil servants whose salaries are been deducted on monthly bases.
HardReporters recalled that some times in May, 2016, when Chairman of Martha Charity Foundation, Immanuel Omoefe, donated four trailer loads of medical devices and equipment to the state, Governor Okowa assured that the contributory health insurance scheme which will soon take off in the state would provide universal health insurance coverage for all Deltans.
While explaining that the scheme is a financing programme, designed to create a system for individuals or group of people to make specific contributions for their healthcare cost, Okowa, reiterated his administration’s commitment to implementing the Contributory Health Insurance Scheme, to provide quality and affordable healthcare coverage to the people, adding that it would ensure that people have access to a defined package of quality healthcare services any time they need it even as he made it clear that subscribers do not have to pay cash at the point of service delivery noting, “The concept is to create a pool, spread the financial risk and ensure sustainability.”
We could also recalled that when the issue of the illegal deduction of civil servants salaries in the state by the Okowa led administration sometimes in 2017, Okowa’s crony and front in the monumental fraud, the Contributory Health Insurance Scheme, one Ben Nkechika, Director General/CEO Delta State Contributory Health Commission, failed beyond every reasonable doubt in his effort to convince the angry workers whose salaries were been illegally and arbitrarily deducted every month.
At a point, when the heat became unbearable for Okowa’s front in the scam called Contributory Health Insurance Scheme, Mr. Nkechika, hurriedly issued a press statement with the following impossible to achieve promises just to calm down the nerves of aggrieved civil servants in the state.
“The Management of the Delta State Contributory Health Commission wish to clarify on issue that has followed the commencement of the deduction of premium contribution for the Delta State Contributory Health Scheme from the Public Service workers. The Scheme commenced in Delta State on the 1st of January 2017 with Pregnant women and Children under 5 years of age who are the most vulnerable members of the society.
“As at 31st of July 2017, over 71,000 pregnant women and children under 5 years have been enrolled and are receiving service under the Scheme in Delta State Government healthcare facilities. Based on the program established for the Scheme, commencement of premium contribution and inclusion of the Formal Sector group starts in August 2017 to enable conclusion of the enrollment process that will enable the enrollees start receiving healthcare service in accredited Public and Private Health facilities in Delta State.
“Upload of Bio Data of Public servants has commenced and validation of this data and registration of their entitled family members will follow immediately. Inclusion of the Informal Sector group will commence in September 2017 with their registration and payment of premium. There will also be a 24hrs call center for quality of service management. We the Commission will do our best to ensure the smooth operation of the Scheme and for the benefit of all.” the statement stated.
Mr. Nkechika, did emphasized in his statement that “Enrollees that complete their registration process will be allocated to the accredited Public or Private Hospital chosen by them from the list of accredited healthcare facilities. This will enable them to start receiving healthcare service in these healthcare facilities.”
As at today, HardReporters, can authoritatively inform the general public that, in all of this Mr. Nkechika said in his statement, nothing is working according to all the promises.
HardReporters was made to understand that at the completion of the registration, beneficiaries will be visiting their chosen public or private hospitals according to Mr. Nkechika, but surprisingly, this has been dropped by the state government as beneficiaries are now made to visit primary healthcare facilities with payment of some sort of percentage outside the deductions.
We dare make bold to say, that the illegal and arbitrary deduction of husband and wife salaries in the state civil service is nothing but a fraud. How can you deduct from the husband and the wife for the same purpose when the family can easily benefit from either of the two and it was clearly stated that a family is entitled to a hospital of their choice.
Again, if Okowa’s aims were not laced with fraud, how come his handlers without a second thought went ahead to be deducting from the salaries of a woman working in the state civil service, whose husband is a federal worker whose salaries are been deducted by the federal government for the same purpose which no doubt accommodates his family. We are asking Governor Okowa, what will then be the fate of this woman whose salaries you have continued to deduct in the name of the scheme which her husband had already registered for at the federal level as a federal civil servant.?
We can boldly say without fear or favour, that the Delta state chapter of the Nigerian Labour Congress, (NLC), and the Delta State Head of Service, Mr. Reginald Bayoko, have been compromised and now turned to “The bulldog without teeth” to bite. The Delta state NLC leadership and the Head of Service no doubt have failed the workers who are now fighting their own course themselves.
We remembered, sometimes in October, 2017, during a meeting, anger, anxiety and confusion were the elements that played out when Delta State Head of Service, Mr. Reginald Bayoko and Civil Servants brainstormed over the introduced contributing health insurance scheme.
Both parties met at the unity hall of Government House Asaba, where the workers, in a fury, bear their minds and hatred for the scheme, describing it as a “Conduit Pipe” to milk them dry from their paltry salaries.
In that meeting, civil servants in the hall raised questions as to of what benefits and relevance is the contributing Health Insurance Scheme even as they expressed their displeasure over the scheme with loud ovation of no we are forced into the scheme, the angry workers alleged it was a way of collecting money from them for inexplicable reasons.
According to the workers “the deduction for the scheme is uncalled for, we are forced into it, civil servants are suffering in Delta state from one deduction or the other”.
Some angry workers described the scheme as a failure that can never address their health issues, adding “we are totally not in support of the scheme, we are forced into it by the present government of Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, we shall soon take to the streets when the situation becomes too unbearable”.
The workers declared that the scheme will contribute billions of naira yearly to the government purse and not necessarily to take care of their health but to loot.
It was observed that when the illegal deductions started in the state, a Permanent Secretary, (PS), complained bitterly that over N10, 000 was deducted from his monthly salary without consent of civil servants across the state who suffered the same fate.
Civil Servants described the act as an illegality been carried out by Governor Ifeanyi Okowa and his cronies, spearheaded by Ben Nkechika in the name of contributory health scheme, asking if actually, Okowa’s coming is to kill or to save them.
By right, governor Okowa has no right to arbitrarily deduct civil servants salaries for a project that has no benefit to them and the consensus was that Okowa led government is anti workers because its only in Nigeria where the rules doesn’t counts, Okowa can do this and NLC leadership will remain in akimbo watching. What a big shame to Delta NLC.
Outside the deductions, practicing nurses in Delta State also kicked against the program. The State Chairman of the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives, Comrade Ejiro Egbedi, made it clear that nurses and hospitals are not prepared for the scheme.
If Okowa is happy that in his days in the senate and as senate committee chairman on health, federal civil servants are today enjoying his bill on the establishment of the National Health Insurance Scheme, (NHIS), he should therefore tread carefully and follow due process in replicating such in Delta state which will be devoid of any uprising from the society. The fraudulent way and manners they are going about the whole thing call for a greater concern.
As at today, Delta state civil servants are currently at crossed road, they don’t know the designated health care facility to go to since their earlier chosen ones have been revoked unknowingly to them.
HardReporters, therefore, admonished governor Ifeanyi Okowa and his co-travellers in this scam to as matter of urgency and importance, suspend the scheme for now as well as all illicit deductions from civil servants salaries across the state, pending when all issues therein are fully and satisfactorily resolved once and for all.