Dr Olusade Adesola, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), has pledged improved welfare for nurses in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
He made the pledge when he received members of the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM) after a road walk tagged “Nurses walk for life” to mark the 2023 FCT Nurses Week in Abuja on Monday.
He said “FCT nurses are indeed our future; they have been serving us diligently; since I came to the FCT, nurses have not gone on strike even once.
“We promise to give you a bus to ease the association’s movement; we had made this promise before and it will be the first assignment that will be tabled before the new FCT Minister when he/she comes.
“I have just signed your hazard allowance last week, every expenditure has to be provided for in the budget, nurses are our future.
“The theme of this year’s nurse’s week “Our nurses, our future” is an assurance that we can rely on you.”
He, however, urged the nurses to always embrace dialogue whenever they feel aggrieved and show understanding
with the FCTA management, while congratulating them on the 2023 Nurses Week.
Earlier, the Chairperson of the association, Deborah Yusuf, had appealed for palliatives for the nurses, especially in the provision of a bus to cushion the effect of the removal of the fuel subsidy and to ease their movement to work.
Yusuf also called for other allowances such as hazard, uniform, rural and most important the review of the Consolidated Health Salary Structure (COHESS) for FCT nurses.
According to her, there can be no future without nurses, and that the many kilometre walk nurses embarked on is all about working the talk they usually tell their patients.
She stated that nurses are committed to their work, stressing that the period of COVID-19 shows how committed they really are to their work, as they were always on ground.
She appreciated the management of FCTA for receiving the association in its office.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that after the road walk, a novelty football match was played between NANNM and the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), FCT Chapter, which the NANNM won with 1-0.
There was also a 100-metre race among the nurses, both male and female categories, a sack race, egg race, and other funfair.
NAN reports that there was also a presentation of a trophy to the high performance team, as well as medals to some individuals.
Source: News Agency of Nigeria