NYSC Medical Corps Protest Non-payment of Allowances in Borno

NYSC Medical Corps Protest Non-payment of Allowances in Borno

By Michael Olugbode in Maiduguri

Members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) medical corps in Borno State on Monday protested the non-payment of the allowances promised them by the state government.

The Batch B NYSC members, who marched to the Borno State Government House, Maiduguri, told journalists that the allowances promised them by the state government has not been paid for four months.

One of them, Cornelius Azi, said the former Governor, Kashim Shettima, had promised to pay N100,000 to each of the medical NYSC doctors and N50,000 to other medical corps members, but the payment has stopped since December after some initial payment.

He lamented that the government was owing January, April, May and June.

Azi said they have written letters to the government through the state Ministry of Health but the government has not responded.

He appealed to the government to approve the backlog to discourage medical corps members from seeking redeployment from the state.

He said the state has about 64 medical corps members including doctors, pharmacists, laboratory technologists and nurses, which forms over 50 per cent of the medical workforce of the state.

He said: “Oftentimes, we work extra hours due to the shortage of medical personnel in the state health facilities. We have explored all alternative ways of dispute resolution but they haven’t yielded results. We appeal to the government to honour its promise.”

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Alhaji Mustapha Alau, who later addressed journalists, said the governor has already directed the Ministry of Finance to pay the corps members.

He said the Ministry of Health will soon compute the outstanding balance of the payment and number of affected corps members for payment.

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