A former President of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and the National President of Nigeria Youth Union, Chinonso Obasi, has been invited by the Department of State Service, DSS, for questioning over the union’s planned rally at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
Investigation revealed that the protest was planned to show displeasure of the youths over the inability of relevant authorities, particularly the leadership of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, NGF, and Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), to meet their demand for a better and efficient Primary Health Centers in Nigeria.
Obasi was summoned alongside other youth leaders involved in the planned activities.
According to Obasi, “Our initial plan was to shut down the airport this morning (Wednesday) but that has been put on hold because of the DSS invitation. The meeting with DSS has been scheduled for today. Our next line of action will be communicated after we meet with the DSS.
“We won’t relent until we see things change. Over 1,000 comrades are already in Abuja to participate in the planned protest which will help us register their discontent with the situation of public healthcare facilities in Nigeria, and we are determined to continue until we affect the needed changes so that Nigerians, mostly poor people at the rural areas can get basic health care services at the PHCs,” he said.
The NYU President claimed that earlier in the year, hundreds of youths protested at the headquarters of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) and the National Secretariat of the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON) for few hours to protest poor state Nigeria’s health care system particularly the PHCs.
This time we intend to drive home our message to the governors and local government Chairmen on the need to leverage the COVID-19 pandemic to revive the PHCs which would be more useful to people in the rural areas.
Obasi said, “We have privileged information from federal ministry of health that the decision to revive the PHCs is on the governor and local government administration because the health is on the concurrent list.
“But we are deeply pained and grossly disenchanted that some State Governors are dictating what happens at the local government level with particular emphasis on directly controlling and pocketing a great chunk of local government funds.”
