Nurses under the aegis of the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), working at the Federal Medical Centre, Idi-Aba, Abeokuta, Ogun State, embarked on a protest.
Their demonstration was against harsh working conditions, shortage of staff, and their alleged exclusion from the 2023 promotion carried out by the health institution, amongst others.
Expressing their displeasure, the aggrieved protesters carried placards that had inscriptions such as: “Stop selective promotion”; “Nurses workload is enough for promotion”; “Nurses’ lives matter”; “Give us our promotion”; “Healthy workplace, healing spaces, nurses demand both”, among others.
Speaking to Punch during the protest, the chairman of NANNM, Olufimilola Adekunle, demanded that the hospital management present the papers of the promotional examination, which the hospital claimed the nurses failed.
The NANNM chairman said, “We are tired, we are really tired. Before, we used to do three shifts but because of the shortage, we have to collapse it to two shifts.
“We have written to the management several times for remuneration for this long hours work we are doing but no response.
“The only thing we enjoyed from this management is this promotion and now our members were not beneficiaries. They said we failed; we want to see the script,” she added.
Reacting to the allegation, the head of clinical services of the hospital, Kunle Adediran, said the decision about the promotion was taken by the federal ministry of health and not the hospital management.
Mr Adeniran, however, assured that the hospital would send a letter to the federal government to review some of the decisions and also address other concerns raised by the nurses.