Unions flay refusal of NHIS boss to vacate office after suspension 

The three unions in the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), have bemoaned the refusal of the suspended Executive Secretary of the Scheme, Prof Usman Yusuf, to vacate office after he was suspended by the NHIS Board.

The three unions – the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN), and Nigeria Civil Service Union (NCSU), – accused Yusuf of lawlessness, corruption, and budget padding, which are contrary to the present government’s anti-corruption posture.

The suspended Executive Secretary however defiled the protest by the unions and forced his way into the office complex with the aide of a few of the staff, who are supporting him after his suspension by the board of the Scheme for alleged gross misconduct on October 18.

Chairman of MHWUN, Olawuyi Kayode, said Yusuf’s continued stay in office is a complete departure from the present government’s stand on integrity with zero tolerance for corruption.

He explained that the governing council carried out its mandate to suspend him due to infractions discovered in the system with several petitions against him, which the union supported.

Also speaking, Chairman of the Association of Senior Civil Servant of Nigeria, who led the protest by the union members, Abdulrazak Omomaji, insisted Yusuf remained suspended in accordance with the law guiding the Scheme.
He said: “NHIS is guided and governed by an established Act with a constituted governing council, the council resolved using powers and available evidence of alleged corruption to suspend Yusuf.

“Presently there are a lot of allegations against him involving the 2018 budget crisis which include removal of the N264 million padding discovered in the budget.

“He engaged in nepotism in Nov. 2016 by fraudulently awarding contract to Lubekh Nigeria Limited for the training of NHIS staff members who were his relatives, among other allegations.”

“He has been suspended, but if he insists on resuming work, then he will be scoring the present government very low in the fight against corruption.

“We stand against his resumption because he resumed with armed policemen and intimidated us,’’ he said.

On his part, the Chairman of NCSU, Mohammed Gajo, criticised the protest saying the Executive Secretary was working with a very articulate and robust plan to sanitise the scheme.

He added that the protest by the joint union was an indication that the members wanted to resist positive changes by the executive secretary, saying: “the ES has recovered a lot of money since his assumption of office; he remitted about N1.2 billion to the TSA account; he insisted that the Health Management Organisations paid back funds meant for health facilities.”

“What is playing out today is that those benefiting from these funds and the past administration are fighting, causing crisis and resisting the positive change”

Head of Special Services in the office of the Executive Secretary, Dr Uchenna Eweliliki, who spoke on behalf of the Embattled Executive Secretary, said the issues raised by the union were insignificant that are were purely administrative.

Eweliliki said that the council and the ES would definitely sort out the issues raised at the last administrative council meeting, adding that the act establishing council does not give any power to the council to suspend the ES of the organisation, who was an appointee to Mr President.

“I want to assure you we are going to resolve this issues by ourselves as the ES is working on packages that are aimed at improving staff welfare,” he said.