Why Borno governor Babagana Zulum suspended entire hospital staff amid rising cases of COVID-19
Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, who is known to pay surprise visits to government institutions, on Thursday, announced that he has suspended the entire staff of a General Hospital in Ngala Town, the headquarters of Ngala local government area of the state.
Those suspended, according to the governor, include resident doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and lab technicians. This is coming amid rising cases of COVID-19 across the country when more health workers are needed in the fight against the virus. As of Wednesday June 3, confirmed cases rose to 11,166, while Borno with 296 cases sits at number eight on the list of 36 states with confirmed cases.
Zulum suspended the health workers for abandoning the health facility to an international non-governmental organisation, fhi360, managing patients at the hospital, majority of whom are people displaced from their homes by the activities of Boko Haram insurgents.
Borno is one of the hotbeds of Boko Haram terrorists’ activities where people live in constant fear. In the past, health workers, humanitarian workers, security operatives and other citizens including over 200 Chibok school girls, have been abducted by the terrorists while some are released after payment of ransom, others who are not lucky have been killed.
In September and October 2018, two health workers, Hauwa Mohammed Liman, 24, and Saifura Ahmed, working with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) were murdered after spending more than six months in the captivity. Many residents still live in fear in the state despite victories recorded by the Nigerian troops over the insurgents.
In February, during an inspection to assess public institutions in the state, Zulum paid an unscheduled visit to a primary school around 6:30am where he met just one teacher in the school during the visit. In July 2019, Zulum paid surprise visits to two government hospitals in the state capital, Maiduguri around 1am where he found no doctor on duty except few nurses.
In a series of tweets, the governor revealed that he paid a visit to a government-owned hospital in Ngala town, but “unfortunately there is no single state Government staff here to attend to all these patients, and we promptly pay all of them salaries”.
He added that the humanitarian workers are supposed to complement the state government staff and not to completely take over the hospital.
Zulum said “I am directing the Borno State Hospitals Management Board, if there is any staff on the payroll of this Hospital, to immediately suspend all the workers on government payroll. I will be back to this hospital, hoping to see the opposite of what I saw today”.
We are not aware – Nigeria Medical Association
Meanwhile, the Borno state chapter of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) have said they are not aware of the suspension.
The NMA Chairman and Secretary in the state Dr Aliyu Kodiya and Dr Yakubu El-Yakub in a separate interview told Neusroom that they have not been briefed and promised to call our correspondent when they have information.
Kodiya, who sounded naive when our correspondent phoned him on Thursday morning, claimed he is not aware. “I’m just hearing it from you and I’ve also not read about it. It’s a possibility but I’ve not read anything about it,” he said.
The Secretary also told Neusroom that he heard about the suspension in the media and could not immediately confirm if the health workers truly abandoned their duty posts as claimed by Zulum.
He said “I just saw it in the media last night and I didn’t enquire about it. I’ll make findings and let you know if there is any information.”
