The United Labour Congress (ULC) has urged the federal government to take the death of Chief of Staff tonthe President, Mallam Abba Kyari as a wakeup call to revamp the nation’s health system.
In a condolence letter by the president, Comrade Joe Ajaero, the group said the late Kyari’s death would afford the country the opportunity to also reflect and query his demise under cvid-COVID-19.
The letter which was addressed to President Muhammadu Buhari, also asked that palliatives be given to workers as done in nations of the world.
The letter reads in parts, “The official announcement of the passing of your Chief of Staff; the committed, fiercely loyal and hardworking Mallam Abba Kyari yesterday Friday, the 17th day of April 2020 was received by us with great shock and a deep sense of loss not only to you but to us as workers and citizens of our great country.
“As we collectively mourn his death, we pray that God will grant you and his immediate family the fortitude to bear this loss. May his soul be granted eternal rest in the bosom of God almighty.
“His passing allows us as a nation to reflect especially as we query the circumstances of his death under the cruel hands of the Pandemic – COVID-19.
“In death, Abba Kyari teaches us as a nation to take serious look at the various national infrastructures that we have allowed to become decrepit over the years especially our healthcare delivery system. His going to the grave urges us to begin immediately to revamp our health institutions, review and ensure effective health policies, ensure greater access to healthcare for all of our citizens, build capacities of our health care personnel and functionally equip our hospitals.
“It teaches us to awaken to the reality of building our nation consciously and deliberately by strengthening every sector of the nation’s social infrastructures and public utilities. The inalienable fact that when the chips are down, it is everyone to his father’s house has been forcefully brought down to us as a nation meaning that the way we place our mats so, shall we lay on them.
“This is why as a nation we must treat our healthcare personnel and those on essential duty fairly. It is clear that as we battle COVID-19 Pandemic that the people that really matter are the workers who are on the frontline of this battle – those in the healthcare chain, the electricity and energy workers, the food and fruit sellers and those who we erroneously considered inconsequential. It has taught us the importance of providing insurance cover for the health workers, the Electricity and Energy workers and in fact, the journalists who daily keep us informed of the battle while we stay at home.
“We are sure your Excellency, it has become clear that as a nation, we should pursue a course that would provide a new and better deal for Nigerian workers. “Mourning him therefore provides us the opportunity to rethink the way in which we have treated the nation’s workforce being the backbone of this nation. For his passing not to be in vain, a special Post-COVID-19 framework for Workers must be established to provide remedies to challenges that may arise for the nation’s workforce after this Pandemic.
“Your Excellency, we would want the COVID-19 palliative to get to every Nigerian especially the workers as it is done in other nations of the world.
Ensuring that some of the Governors pretending to be combating the Pandemic but using it as a cover to deny workers their salary by hastily declaring curfew do not have their way has also become important. “We urge the President to ensure that all Nigerian workers whether in the Private or Public sector are paid their wages and salaries at this period of great distress.”
