South East breaking News
By Steve Unegbu
Carry Out Genuine Reforms In Nigeria ,Senator Abaribe Tells Federal Government
The Senate Minority Leader in the National Assembly ,Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe has assured the EndSARS protesters that ” we are with them ,but urged them “not to involve in violence ,no breaking of anything ,just sitting down and making sure that their passive resistance will bring a change to the country”
Speaking during the NMA Abia state 2020 Physician’s week ,held at Michael Okpara Auditorium Umuahia , he urged government of the day to carry out genuine reforms,”not something cosmetic ,because the people can see through anything you want to do that is cosmetic”
He said that the opposition also accept responsibility because ” our party was in power and these also happened during the time we were also in office and so because we have also seen that we were part of the problem,we want to be part of you to solve the problem ” he noted .
According to him ,how do we solve it ? ,” It is not just to give in to their demands, it is to be genuine in being able to make sure that the trajectory of Nigeria today ,where one particular section wants to dominate everything, has to stop .It is to make sure that the increasing poverty in Nigeria,you must bring a halt to it ,where even doctors are being owed salaries and all that .We can not continue along that line ,the dilapidated infrastructure, we have everywhere we must make genuine efforts to solve them”
He called on the government of the day to give Nigerians genuine electoral reforms that can be done with technology so that no body will go and write result for somebody else ,adding that what we do some of the time is selection and not election.
Senator Abaribe ,congratulated all Nigeria medical personnel for working so hard to curtail the spread of covid-19 in Nigeria.
Addressing Newsmen ,the Governor of Abia state ,Dr Okezie Ikpeazu commended medical doctors ,describing them as ” very good pillars and support during the pandemic. They gave us all the support in the state “
Governor Ikpeazu ,who was represented by the Secretary to Abia state government, Barrister Chris Ezem,said the State government will continue to partner with them ,give them enabling environment and support to drive NMA forward.
The chairman of NMA Abia state, Dr Chimezie Godswill Okwuonu while interacting with newsmen, described Physician’s week as an annual event ,during which their association take a stock of their activities in the past one year ,pointing out that ” this year one is peculiar because of covid-19 , which made the health sector becomes so stressed and over burdened “
He encouraged government to pay the arrears of salaries that are owed to workers to avoid the work force from migrating ,noting that work force is one of the pillars of recoveries in health care system and that one of the things that can make workforce to migrate is when they are not paid.
According to him , ” Instead of the salaries load to reduce ,it is actually increasing ,two months ago ,it was 16 months salaries that are owed ,today it is 17 months and this is quite disturbing ,even as he promised that his administration is targeting at completing the NMA complex started by his predecessor, Dr Mrs Carol Iwuoha.