NHIS staff protest against Yusuf’s reinstatement, demand his removal

It’s an indictment of FG’s corruption fight, says Tijani
Employees of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) yesterday protested against Federal Government’s reinstatement of the suspended Executive Secretary of the NHIS, Professor Usman Yusuf.

The workers, under the aegis of the Joint Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (JASCSN) and the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN), gathered at the NHIS headquarters in Abuja to demand the immediate reversal of Yusuf’s reinstatement and complete removal from office in the interest of peace and industrial harmony.

Addressing journalists during the protest, JASCSN Chairman, NHIS chapter, Abdulrazak Omomeji, noted that since the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was still investigating Yusuf, his reinstatement could cause chaos in the scheme.

He said: “We know that President Muhammadu Buhari is a man of integrity and justice, he should reconsider this matter. The president would have waited for the outcome of the EFCC’s investigation because he that goes to equity must go with clean hands and Prof Yusuf is not clean.”

Also speaking, chairman, MHWUN, Olawuyi Kayode, noted THAT Yusuf’s reinstatement was a dent on the anti-corruption stance of the APC-led administration and urged President Buhari to reverse his reinstatement and allow Yusuf to go and face the EFCC.

He said: “We don’t want anyone to come and corrupt us, why is he desperate to come back? He was with the EFCC two days ago and his passport was seized, how could he be reinstated just a day after?

He should be removed because he does not have focus or direction, he came and met big money and got intoxicated so he had to create confusion in order to be pushing our money, this money belongs to us.”

He pointed out that when TSA was introduced in 2015, NHIS complied and paid over N145billion to the account “but we were surprised that Yusuf said he met a rot in NHIS.”

Meanwhile, responding to Yusuf’s reinstatement, a former Editor of New Nigeria Newspapers, Tajudeen Tijjani said the development pointed to the fact that those who were prosecuted for various offences have no Godfather to stop their trial.

Tijani, who spoke in Kaduna yesterday in a statement said the allegations against the NHIS boss were so weighty that they should not be brushed aside for any reason, adding: “Until justice is done and see to be done, the Yusuf case would continue to hang on the neck of this administration.”

“He must be brought to book with all his accomplices and made to face the law.
Yusuf had boasted that he is untouchable because he hailed from the President’s village.”

He added that the suspended Executive Secretary of NHIS was found guilty by a panel of enquiry set up by the mother ministry and the recommendations of the panel upheld.

“For Nigerians who believed in President Buhari’s zeal and commitment to fight corruption, reinstating Yusuf by presidential fiat, is an indictment on the posture of this administration that claims to be fair and just in its corruption fight.

“Now that the presidency has reportedly said that the professor could be tried by any anti-graft agency, Yusuf should remain suspended until the determination of his case in a competent law court,” he stated.