Community health workers in Bayelsa State have embarked on an indefinite strike to protest what they describe as years of casualization and neglect in the state’s primary healthcare system.
The workers, under the aegis of the Association of Community Health Practitioners of Nigeria (ACHPN), Bayelsa Chapter, staged a peaceful protest in Yenagoa on Monday, demanding immediate employment and improved welfare.
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The demonstrators marched through major roads in the state capital carrying placards with inscriptions such as “No More Casual Work,” “Government Employ Health Practitioners,” “No More Free Services in Bayelsa PHC,” and “Community Health Workers Are Ready to Immunize — Employ Us.”
They insisted that the state government absorb at least 90 per cent of community health workers into the civil service and fulfill its obligations under the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), which they say included a commitment to engage them fully after a three-year partnership.
Spokesman for the group, Gabriel Akwasa, said some members have worked as casual staff for up to 17 years despite being qualified graduates of the Bayelsa State College of Health Technology, Otuogidi.
He lamented that several employment exercises carried out by the state government over the years have consistently excluded community health workers, even as other cadres in the health sector were absorbed into the civil service.
Akwasa appealed to Governor Douye Diri to intervene, stressing that the indefinite strike would continue until their demands are met, warning that immunization programs and other primary healthcare services across the state would be severely affected if nothing is done.
