Lagos COVID-19 Emergency Responders Beg For Allowance 7 Months After

Volunteer Doctors who worked as frontliners during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Lagos State, South-West Nigeria, are demanding payment of their 4 months allowance, seven months after.

Biodun Okanlawon, one of the frontline health workers lamented the non-payment of the allowances due to them by the Lagos State Government even after signing an agreement at the peak of the pandemic.

He said, “When COVID-19 started, Lagos State government called for volunteers, the volunteers included Lagos State health workers and private health workers.

“There was an agreement signed to pay us monthly during our services. Some people have been paid for all the months while others are still being owed.

“I personally have not been paid for the last three months and i learnt Lagos State claimed to have paid everyone.”

He explained to THE WHISTLER that some health workers were paid recently because of various social media posts and not because the state government felt committed to fulfilling its part of the bargain.

“Some private volunteer doctors are yet to be paid especially those who worked in a department as critical as the Intensive Care Unit,” he revealed.

These health workers include doctors, nurses and other health workers who were in the frontlines of the covide-19 pandemic.

Dr. Okanlawon worked at The Mainland Hospital,Yaba during the period.

Another frontline health worker who gave her name as Dr.Jumoke also told THE WHISTLER that volunteers from both private and  public sectors including the Health Service Commission, General Hospital and IDH were requested to work during the first, second and third waves of Covid-19 in Lagos State.

She said, “But it has become a persistent habit of the state government and its officials to always delay our covid-19 allowance.

“It took agents of the media such as radio and television for us to get paid. I’m not trying to imply that the government is not trying but it has to do better as we all risked our lives during this critical period. I can recall a colleague died during this period while so many of us faced mental, physical and social stress from being frontliners.

“We would like to know why the government would not pay our allowances from November 2021 and still owe us January, February and March 2022 allowances. The only health workers that got paid are the laboratory workers.”

Dr.Jumoke added that the state government had asked several times for their names to be submitted without making any effort to make the payments.

She shared a screenshot of their conversation with the Senior Special Assistant to the Lagos State Government on Health, Dr. Tunde Ajayi.

In the conversation, she said “The volunteers who are staff of Lagos State Government stopped getting paid extra allowance since October last year but they still get paid as Lagos State employees.

“The Covid-19 response dwindled globally and the world has moved back to normal activities, Lagos has done the same.”

She added that the covid-19 response has been institutionalized as part of the Health Ministry’s regular activities, which according to her, is one of the reasons the frontliners are still being owed.

According to her, whoever is posted to the Infectious Diseases Hospital worked as a staff of Lagos State and their salaries are for the work they do.

“I’m sure the volunteers have been addressed. External volunteers were paid but those who work with Lagos may not get extra allowance as those that are paid salaries for the work they do,” she stated.

THE WHISTLER reached out to the Incidence Manager of the Covid-19 response in the state, Dr. Ismail Abdulsalam. He claimed all the health workers have been paid, a response which contradicts that of the SSA.

“None of them is being owed; you can reach out to the Lagos State Government Public Affairs Unit for more details,” he said.

Asked why the health workers would claim they had not been paid if it was not the case,  Dr Abdulsalam said, “I don’t know.”