Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN) has called for liberalised appointments in the health sector so as to give room for selection base on merit and competencies.
ACPN claimed that Nigerian physicians and their umbrella body have intimidated successive administrations in Nigeria at the Federal and many state levels to continue to insist that appointments as Minister of Health and Commissioners for Health as well as those of Permanent Secretaries remain the birthright of physicians.
A statement co-signed by the ACPN National Secretary, Samuel Adekola and the National Secretary Ambrose Ezeh explained that the scenario is same with all appointments into the MDAs at Federal and State levels, adding that it had harmful consequences on public health outputs in Nigeria.
According to the statement, all the goals and objectives of both the National Health Policy and National Drug Policy which centre around accessibility, affordability, safe and efficacious health care services and credible drugs supply system have never been and may never be met as a result of the shoddy and irresponsible manner the country had adopted in running our Health System.
The statement however reads: “It should interest observers that all appointments into prime MDAs in Health sector for instance; NHIS, NPHCDA, NACA, NCDC, Essential Drug List Committee and all special health intervention programmes including National Malaria Control, Tuberculosis Control, Leprosy Control, among others are dominated by physicians in Nigeria, including heads of all public hospitals at both state and federal levels.
“Whereas, at the international fora and other saner climes, positions of leadership are based purely on merit, skill, and competencies. A quick example is the current Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus an Eritrean-born Ethiopian biologist and public health researcher.”
The association described the situation as a carry-over of the conqueror mentality imposed on all health workers by physicians by the obnoxious Decree 10 of 1985 which it said had now metamorphosed to the University Teaching Hospital Act CAP U15 LFN 2004.
“Decree 10 of 1985 was the tool of oppression created by the late Professor Olikoye Ransome-Kuti in the military era anchored by General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida.
“For the records, it was Decree 10 of 1985 that reversed the gains of the fruitful headship of health administrators in Federal Health Institutions and replaced same with the headship of physicians as Chief Medical Directors, Medical Directors, Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee, Head of Clinical Services and their numerous deputies in all Health Institutions across board at State and Federal Levels,” the group said.
According to ACPN, “The domination is extended to even appointments into the Boards of Managements of the various Federal Health Institutions where about 8 out of 13 slots are permanently reserved for Physicians at the detriment of consumers of health.”
However, the association in the release blamed the Federal Ministry of Health for hindering the rule of law to prevail despite several court rulings affirming the autonomy of Medical Laboratory Science and the jurisdictional competence of Medical Laboratory Scientist to prevail in clinical laboratories.
The association therefore, called on all the progressive minded professional bodies to join forces with JOHESU, Civil Rights Societies and other patriots to form a workable coalition force so as to stage a unity rally to the National Assembly to draw attention of parliamentarians to the need to redress all Acts of Parliament which gives exclusivity to Physicians in terms of appointments and other privileges.
It also stressed the need for all health workers and their leadership to convey a roundtable discourse to strategise on how best to tackle the lingering MDCAN suit at the Federal High Court (FHC), Abuja which according to the release is the high point of the many years of insulting ACPN intelligence as care-providers in Nigeria.
