AN ADDRESS BY PRINCE PETER UWAGBALE (ksm), THE NATIONAL PRESIDENT ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH OFFICERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA DURING A COURTESY VISIT TO THE HONOURABLE MINISTER OF ENVIRONMENT MRS LAURENTIA LARABA MALLAM ON THURSDAY 22ND MAY, 2014 AT THE FEDERAL MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT ABUJA.

PROTOCOL,

I will start by thanking you for responding to our burning desire to pay you this courtesy visit. Honourable Minister, Ma, the main objective of our visit to you today is to welcome you into Office as the Honourable Minister of Environment of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. And to extend our hand of fellowship in the discharge of your responsibilities in this exalted position. We are very much aware of the role of massive support you needed in the discharge of your onerous responsibilities, as a result, the entire Sanitarians in Nigeria are solidly with you.

The Environmental Health Officers Association of Nigeria (EHOAN) as a major stake holder in the field of environment wish to relay to you our unreserved loyalty and goodwill. Your success in office will automatically translate to our success.

Recall that immediately you were assigned the responsibility as the Honourable Minister of Environment, we sent in a congratulatory letter in which we stated that we believed in your ability and you have so far proved that especially by including unemployed Environmental Health Officers among those to enjoy the SURE-P Graduate Employment Scheme and other activities. This is commendable.

Honourable Minister, Ma, it is our responsibility to come and highlight to you some areas that we feel will improve environmental health services in Nigeria.

1. Massive employment of Environmental Health Officers, Technicians and Assistants by the relevant agencies in Nigeria to meet the World Health Organization (WHO) standard of one Environmental Health Officer to eight thousand population (1:8000), this could be done through your advocacy to all the three (3) tiers of Government as well as the private sector in Nigeria.

2. Re-constitution of the Environmental Health Officers Registration Council of Nigeria (EHORECON). Since the tenure of the last Council expired in 2009, we have advocated severally through the Registrar of EHORECON for its reconstitution all to no avail. Honourable Minister, if the Council is put in place, most of the challenges the profession is facing will be handled by it with minimum delay and therefore reduced the pressure in your office and improve our service delivery.

3. Review and passage of the Environmental Health Practice Regulation Bill in the National Assembly. Most of the environmental health problems facing the Nation today could be resolved by the early passage of the environmental health regulations law. The passage which is long overdue is adversely affecting the smooth prosecution of emerging environmental challenges in the Nation.www.medicalworldnigeria.com

4. Improvement of our Training Institutions which are responsible for the training of Environmental Health Practitioners in Nigeria, require urgent Government attention. Relatedly, there is the need to embark on advocacy to various Universities to commence the training of Environmental Health Officers at graduate and post graduate levels (Bsc and Msc programmes). The beginning of the various degree programmes in Environmental Health by the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) during your administration is heartwarming and commendable. The Colleges of Health Sciences and Technologies in Nigeria should be assisted by the Federal Ministry of Environment to be able to access the Tertiary Education Fund (TETFUND) to improve their capacity thus enhancing the quality of the professionals they train.

5. The need for synergy between the Federal Ministries of Environment and Health especially as it affects personnel and their service delivery in the environmental health. A situation where there is unnecessary conflict created between these two Ministries will not auger well for the overall wellbeing of Nigerians. The EHORECON Registrar, we believe without your knowledge and clearance, single handedly wrote a letter to the Federal Minister of Health asking for the proscription of the West Africa Health Examinations Board (WAHEB). This he did when the Council is not yet reconstituted and without even consulting the major stakeholders. Honourable Minister, Ma, our eligibility to be registered and to practice by EHORECON is based on the certificates issued by WAHEB, and he now wants it to be proscribed. This is unacceptable to Sanitarians in Nigeria. 

6. The need for cohesion between EHOAN and EHORECON will improve the service delivery by the Environmental Health Practioners. On the other hand if there is conflict, it will affect the practice. At present, The Registrar, EHORECON has created a parallel National Executive Council that he is referring to as Reconciliatory Caretaker Committee after all his plans to destabilize the Association failed. He sponsored some of his staff to Port Harcourt in November 2013 to scuttle the Annual General Meeting of the Association but also failed. He therefore continually ensures we are in court facing one case or the other while at the same time has employed divide and rule system, intimidation and total disaffection among environmental health practitioners in Nigeria. He has perpetually denied us access to the Joint EHOAN Development Levy Account that is being operated for the purpose of building a befitting Secretariat for the Association. Honourable Minister, Ma, this certainly will not bring harmony, the Association is an affiliate of the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN) and thus the Labour arm of the profession while the Council (EHORECON) is the Government arm. The Registrar has been an agent of disharmony since his assumption in office as he has been at logger head with all the previous National Executives. This is verifiable. This is just to mention but a few. www.medicalworldnigeria.com

OUR PRAYERS TO THE ABOVE OBSEVATIONS:

1. The Honourable Minister, Ma, may wish to embark on massive advocacy for employment of Environmental Health Practitioners by the 3 tiers of Government and the Private Sector in Nigeria.

2. It is the earnest desire of all Sanitarians in Nigeria that the Environmental Health Officers’ Registration Council be reconstituted without further delay. We hope and rely on the Honourable Minister’s consultations with EHOAN and other stakeholders in this regard.

3. The Minister may wish to meet the Chairman House Committee on Environment on the need for early passage of the Environmental Health Regulation Bill.

4. To realize the commencement of the Degree programmes, the Minister may wish to constitute an advocacy team to pay advocacy visits to our various Universities. The team should as a matter of urgency should solicit for the inclusion of the Colleges of Health Sciences to access TETFUND.

5. The Honourable Minister, Ma, you may wish to direct the Registrar, EHORECON to write and withdraw the letter he sent to the Honourable Minster of Health for a call to proscribe WAHEB.

6. The Honourable Minister, Ma, you may wish to look into our earlier letter calling on the redeployment of the Registrar and Heads of Department in EHORECON to other units in the Federal Ministry of Environment and other Agencies under the Ministry e.g. NESREA.

Finally as we prepare to commemorate two major events in the month of June viz: The World Environment Day and National Environmental Sanitation Day which come up on June 5th and 28th respectively we are ready to partner with you for the success of these propgrammes.

Thank you, Honourable Minister, Ma, for giving us this audience while we pledged on behalf of our members all over Nigeria our unalloyed loyalty, commitment and dedication to your administration, please. 

Long Live Federal Republic of Nigeria, Long Live Federal Ministry of Environment, Long Live EHOAN