65
22nd May, 2025.
From:
The Concerned Staff,
Federal Neuro Psychiatric Hospital,
Kware, Sokoto
To:
The Honourable Minister,
Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare,
Federal Secretariat,
Abuja.
Sir,
A PASSIONATE APPEAL FOR URGENT INTERVENTION AND ACTIONS TO AVERT A LOOMING THREAT TO INDUSTRIAL HARMONY AT THE FEDERAL NEURO PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL, KWARE. SOKOTO.
For over two months, the Concerned Staff of the Federal Neuro Psychiatric Hospital, kware, Sokoto, has been championing the collective grievances and struggles of the entire body of workers, against the despicable regime of decadence, arbitrariness, brazen thievery and wanton looting by the management of the Neuro Psychiatric Hospital, kware, Sokoto under the outgoing Medical Director, Dr Shehu Saleh.
Expectedly, the management has been unleashing various vicious acts of witchhunting those suspected to be in the vanguard of the workers’ action. The recent invitation by the Sokoto state Command of the DSS of some of the leaders of those clamouring for sanity, is one instance of the management’s resort to intimidation and coercion.
In a bid to guard against Dr Shehu Saleh’s persecution and harassment through vindictive administrative measures, we escalated our campaign to the institution’s supervisory Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Abuja. By that action, we had expected to get justice.
Alas, all our spirited efforts to be heard and to get fair hearing at the mother ministry, met with brick walls. This is especially the case at the office of the Honourable Minister of State, where officials repeatedly refused to grant our representatives audience.
On the advice of few sympathetic officials at the Ministry, we wrote and addressed a letter of petition, which was duly delivered and acknowledged in the office of the Honourable Minister of State, on the 4th of April, 2025. (Copy attached).
In summary, in the said petition of 4th April, 2025, we drew attention of the Minister of State, to the burning issue at the hospital: the scheming of the outgoing Medical Director, Dr Shehu Saleh, to circumvent due process and every laid down statutory regulations, in the appointment of his successor.
We highlighted the obnoxious decision of the outgoing MD, to shut out existing and qualifed personnel in the service of the hospital in the appointment of the Head of Clinical Services. Rather, he surreptitiously went out to shop in far away Kano for an Acting Head of Clinical Services. It is pertinent to point out the fact that, Dr Saleh is going for this particular external candidate, because procedurally, the Head of Clinical Services automatically becomes the the MD, in the event of a vacancy.
Apart from the official stamp, acknowledging receipt of our petition in the office of the Honourable Minister of State, there has not been any further word of official response to our submitted grievances till date.
Rather, to the utter bewilderment of the entire members of the hospital community, the ministry’s Director of Teaching Hospitals Division, Dr Abisola issued a memo dated, 30th of April, on the “directive of the Honourable Minister of State” which gave approval to the request of MD Shehu Saleh, to formally engage one Dr Abubakar Baguda Sulaiman, (from outside of the hospital), as the Acting Head of Clinical Services. (Copy of the Director’s memo, hereby attached.)
OUR SECOND PETITION:
Shocked and amazed by the queer turn of events: the non response to our petition and, the surprised Minister’s directive on the patently wrong and unethical appointment of Dr Abubakar Baguda, we submitted yet another petition to the office of the Honourable Minister, on the 12th of May, 2025.
In our second petition, we recalled and eleborated on the highlights contained in the first one. We, among others, reiterated the following points:
1.That, Dr Shehu Saleh has been desperately searching for a successor who would be complacent and pliable to covering up his tracks of corruption and series of other unethical conducts in the management of the hospital over his eight-year tenure.
2. That, Dr Shehu Saleh is obsessed and desperate to hand over to somebody who would not unlock the the cupboards presently hiding heaps of horrifying skeletons attesting to his chains of acts of malfeasance.
3. That, Dr Shehu Saleh wants a successor who would maintain his legacy of nepotism, cronyism and his other acts of maladministration. During his tour of duty, appointments, dispositions, assignments and contract awards were openly skewed to favour friends and cronies. Due process, diligence and merit were not considered as criteria.
At this juncture, it worth revealing that Dr Abubakar Baguda Sulaiman who, is a staff of the Neuro Psychiatric Hospital in Kano, is closely related to Dr Shehu Saleh by virtue of the two being married to sisters of the same parents!
OUR SHOCKED DISCOVERY OF THE ROLE OF THE HONOURABLE MINISTER OF STATE.
Based on our frustrating and bitter experience in the course of seeking for justice and sanity, we were forced into the painful conclusion that, some lower cadre officials of the ministry might have been compromised by the institution’s management.
It therefore, came to us as a rude shock when we realised that in total contrast to our perception of him, the Honourable Minister of State, Dr
Iziak Adekunle Salako, may NOT have been as blameless and impartial over our matter. The unfortunate change in our esteem of Dr Iziak Adekunle Salako derived from a scenario that played out on the 14th May, 2025.
On that day, our representatives were at the office of the Minister of State to submit our earlier referred second petition. Coincidentally just at that moment, the MD, Dr Shehu Saleh, also arrived the office.
The Minister and himself (the MD) met along the corridor and the following conversation took place between them while they walked towards the Minister’s office:
MD: “Good afternoon Sir, my Honourable Minister.”
Minister of State: “MD, you are here. What a coincidence, your people were also here moments ago with another petition. Are you aware?”
MD: “No Sir, Honourable. I’m just arriving town. I am not aware of any other one from them apart from the last one.”
Minister of State: “By the way, when are you finally vacating office?”
MD: “On the 31st of this month, Sir”.
Minister of State: “That’s good, I think then, that there will be space of time for me to honour your request of me coming over to Sokoto to commission your legacy projects.
“Before you leave this time, I will also ask that they give you the hand over letter to your successor. Has he resumed in Sokoto?”
MD: “Yes Sir. We are grateful, thank you very much, Honourable.”
How do we expect to get anything close to a modicum of fair hearing and, justice from a Minister that is so chummy in his friendship with someone with who we are at loggerhead?
With what we saw of the cordiality and, “comraderie” between MD Shehu Saleh and Minister Iziak Adekunle Salako, do we need any more explanations for our always meeting a brick wall, and why, our petitions were not getting the due attention from the ministry?
CONCLUSION/ PRAYERS:
We concluded the second edition of our petition by strongly reiterating the following:
* After eight years in office as Medical Director/CEO, Dr Shehu Saleh is leaving behind at the Federal Neuro Psychiatric Hospital, kware, Sokoto, a wrecked and comatose Hospital. This sorry picture is at once, evident in the low morale and despondency among all categories of the institution’s staff; dilapidated facilities; paucity of working equipment, and shortage of drugs and other basic essentials that are vital to the functioning of a specialist health institution.
*Dr Shehu Saleh is, desperately scheming to hand over to a trusted and complacent individual who would be beholding to him and who, he is rest assured, will not spill the bean, by opening the odious, stinking can of worms he is leaving behind as his legacies. His eight-year tenure was like the reign of the locusts, characterised by impunity and reckless disregard for order, rules and regulations.
* In some opinions, Dr Shehu Saleh is averse to a successor from within the Hospital, particularly, Dr Ishak Abioda Danjuma, strictly and solely because, he is skeptical of handing over to a disciplined, prudent and honest person who might be inclined to expose his sordid records.
Unknown to many however, Dr Shehu Saleh has additionally been playing the religious card by whipping up primordial sentiments in order to gain support in certain quarters for his essentially, self-centered dispise of Dr Ishak Abioda Danjuma. This is a dangerous dimension to the situation because, it has the potential of disrupting the long-standing tradition of serenity and harmony thereby, counterproductive to the hospital’s progress, workplace stability and the general welfare of its staff, the patients and the wider community.
In fact, to put the lie to the religious card being played by Dr Shehu Saleh, it is noteworthy that, majority (99%) of of those of us leading this campaign for equity, decency, probity and due process are NOT, of the same faith as Dr Ishak Abioda Danjuma. We are SIMPLY motivated and driven by the selfless pursuits of what we deem to be Right, Just, Fair and, the superior interest of enhancing the service delivery of the hospital. In other words, we are a group of Concerned Staff that are united, sincerely and singularly with the goal of salvaging a critical agency from going further down the drain.
We are vehemently against the plan to bring in an outsider as replacement for the outgoing MD because of the obvious sinister motives that we consider as inimical and detrimental to the hospital. We believe that going further on the path followed by the outgoing Medical Director, will be leading to irreparable havoc.
On the other hand, our support of Dr Ishak Abioda, is based on his irrefutable academic qualifications, his sterling and his remarkable track records of diligent service to the hospital spanning over a period of 15 YEARS. Very significantly, Dr Abioda is well known and respected by majority of staff of the hospital as a stickler for probity, transparency and accountability.
In our view, the Honourable Minister of State, Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Dr Iziak Adekunle Salako, is being inadvertently led and goaded into supporting a dubious project that is questionable and morally wrong in all ramifications.
The refusal to consider suitable and qualified personnel at the Federal Neuro Psychiatric Hospital kware Sokoto, for a total stranger who is by no means, better qualified or, more competent than some of those on ground at the hospital, runs against the grains of logic, fair play, equity, justice and all the known statute rules and regulations.
Significantly, the unfolding scenario at the Federal Neuro Psychiatric Hospital, kware, Sokoto, is in direct opposite to the goals, objectives and spirit of Mr President’s government
Philosophy of, RENEWED HOPE AGENDA.
From the foregone , we are on the whole, emphatically and passionately appealing to:
(1) The Honourable Minister of Health and Social Welfare to critically examine the development at the kware, Sokoto Neuro Psychiatric Hospital in the context of our highlighted observations and grounds for grievances.
(2). The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences commissions, ICPC, to investigate the issues of corruption and abuse of due process contained in our petitions.
(3). We are appealing to all the relevant authorities, national legislators and the other stakeholders
to intervene and prevent the perpetuation of injustice and abuse of due process in the appointment of a new Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Neuro Psychiatric Hospital, kware, Sokoto.
Lastly, while we are not issuing threats or blackmail, we wish to caution that, the course being embarked upon by the powers that be in the present circumstance, may not augur well for the existing fragile industrial peace and harmony at the hospital.
Thank you once again with assurances that we sincerely remain committed to the services of the Neuro Psychiatric Hospital, kware, Sokoto and the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare
Yours,
Suleiman Isa Bodinga,
(For members of the Concerned Staff of the FNPH, Kware, Sokoto).
CC:
*The Senate President.
*Chairman, Senate Committee on Health.
*The Speaker,
House of Representatives,.
*House Committee Chairman on Health.
*The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF.
*The Chief of Staff to the President, Commander-in-Chief.
* The Chairman, ICPC
* The Chairman, EFCC.
* The Director General, DSS.
* The Executive governors,
Sokoto state.
*The President, Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC.
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