It is a my
pleasure and privilege to present this address to the President, Environmental
Health Officers Association of Nigeria, Delta State Chapter on behalf of the
Nigerian Association of Private Environmental Health Practitioners. I also wish
to use this opportunity to congratulate the President and other members of the
state executive on their well deserved victory.
Mr.
President Sir, we are here today to inform you on a number of issues affecting
the Environmental Health Profession with a view to finding lasting solution to
them. The Environmental Health Officers are public health practitioners charged
with the management of waste; food hygiene, pollution control, vector control, housing
and environmental planning amongst others. According to World Health
Organization (WHO), environmental health is made up of fourteen (18) components
on which the profession was built. We can recall that in the time past and during
the era of Sanitary Inspectors, the profession was given its due recognition in
the scheme of things. Today, the reverse is the case. With the growing apathy
of most of our members, many questions are begging for answers. “Where are our Sanitary Inspectors?” This was the caption in “The Punch” newspaper
of 26th September, 2013 .
The profession seems to be losing its relevance. Many graduates of
environmental health are regretting why they read the course. To them, the
future is bleak. What does the future hold for the practice of environmental
health in the next 10 years and beyond? It is a well known fact that many
states in the federation have not been employing environmental health
practitioners. The population of unemployed professionals is increasing yearly.
What do we think is responsible? Is it that we are no longer relevant or
government is not feeling our impact, or our state's Environmental Health Officers Association of Nigeria, EHOAN and Environmental
Health Officers Registration Council of Nigeria (EHORECON) are not up to the
task of addressing the various challenges affecting us?
1.
We are of the opinion that the practice of
Environmental Health in Nigeria
2. On 24th September,
2012, the then Minister of Environment, Hajiya Hadiza Mailafia inaugurated
‘Environmental Health Practice Standard Monitoring Committee’ that they should
“abate the nuisances consisting of business as usual, low work output,
compromise of professional responsibility and integrity, corruption and loss of
impact on the society to ensure that they impacted positively and perceptibly
in their operational areas” and others. The committee consists of environmental
health officers based in each state (five Environmental Health officers were
assigned to Delta State) to monitor the practice of their members, the
challenges and problems, impact and other things and report their findings to
EHORECON. It is now one year and we would like to hear from you what progress
has been made.
3. The current
(2012) guideline policy of National Primary Health Care Development Agency
(NPHCDA) relegated us and gave out our duties to Community Health Extension
Workers. What are our association [EHOAN] and the Council [EHORECON] doing
about this? Many policy makers do not know much of our duties.
In 2007 National
Council of Health meeting, it was recommended that by the end of 2007, all
healthcare and research facilities should put in place infection control
systems. And that waste management committee must include head of the hospital
or his representative, the heads of departments in a hospital, and their
registered Environmental Health Officers in charge of waste management. By the
end of 2007, the meeting also recommended that every healthcare and research
facility, where none exists, shall create an Environmental Health
Department/Unit manned by qualified professionals charged with the
responsibility of environmental health services
including waste management. By the end of 2010, every Teaching Hospital,
Specialist Hospital
These and other
recommendations were communicated to all Chief Medical Directors of University
Teaching Hospitals and FMCs by Federal Ministry of Health. Delta state, like
some others have not seen reasons why priority should be given to the
profession. I perceived that some of these state governments would want the
profession to grow into extinction. This is evident in the shortage of skilled
professionals in most LGAs of the federation, the engagement of non
professionals for Environmental Health Services. Some of the best aspects of
governance like sanitary inspection which used to be standard practice before,
have been relegated and we are the losers.
4. Lack of awareness.
Majority of Nigerians and our policy makers see environmental health simply as ‘Waste
Management.’ Other environmental health issues are unknown to them. Why do we
think it is only on waste matter that people associate our profession with, is
it that we are not making appreciable impacts or we fail to show what our
profession is all about? Does our EHOAN have a functional website and valid
e-mail? Our Regulatory body-EHORECON has a website: www.ehorecon.org.ng , why is the page static for a
long period of time? At this age where the world has become a global village,
our existence on net is telling the world who we are, what we are, where we are
and how we are. Unfortunately EHOAN does not own even a blog, let alone a
website to communicate to the world what we are.
EHORECON website has not been updated for over a year. Many icons are empty. The only information I found on the website is
2013 council examination starting from 2-6th December, 2013 and notice of relocation of its
office to its new location in Utako, Abuja
5. The
structure and regulation of the profession is lax. This ranges from the
training institution through the public practitioners to the regulatory body.
Some of these training institutions are yet to be accredited by relevant authorities
but they produce graduates each year. Training institutions are allowed to
admit as many students as possible without consideration to life after school.
Some of these training institutions produce Higher National Diploma (HND)
graduates without NYSC discharge certificate. A sorry situation that has denied
most Environmental Health Officers job opportunities. In job practice, the
environmental health profession has been neglected to quacks, so many have
infiltrated the profession and more are on the line. There is now Environmental
Management Association of Nigeria. In a recent publication, they are now
calling for the adoption of reduce, Reuse and Recycling (3R) strategies in
waste management programme in the country. They have also called for the speedy
passage of the Environmental Managers Registration Council of Nigeria (EMRECON)
that is before the National Assembly. This
is a wake up call to The EHORECON. In the words of the Registrar, …….”.today,
more than 80 percent of the sanitary inspectors registered across the country
are above the age of 50, meaning that in the next 10 years we are going to be
losing about 80 percent of them to retirement and this is not funny as their
duties cannot be done by any other persons”. -Augustine Ebisike, Registrar,
EHORECON, Daily Trust, 20th November, 2013. What has been done about this, with
the thousands of the unemployed graduates who are registered Environmental
Health Practitioners, paying fees for license renewal without jobs? The
Environmental Health Officers Association of Nigeria is supposed to criticize
the council but it is not doing enough. She is supposed to work on the issue of
inaugurating board members. Imagine our profession with no board members in the
past two years. Two good heads are better
than one, they say. It looks things are falling apart in the profession of
‘Environmental health’ as there may not be ‘authentic executives’ of EHOAN
(National) in Nigeria now. In Daily Trust newspaper, an advert on page 14
bearing EHOAN logo and signed by the duo of Nwokocha Ogbonna [Past PRO EHOAN]
and Ahmad Yandeh Mairiga [immediate VP North-West]. They seem to be representing
the faction that believes there was no any election at all in Port-Harcourt.
They informed the general public and all EHO that those parading themselves as
Executives of EHOAN are fraudsters and impostors, and that anybody that deals
with them is doing so at his/her own risk. They also said that the Annual
General Meeting decided that Trustee of EHOAN take charge of the association until
further notice. With all the enormous challenges facing us structurally,
educationally, attitudinally, mentally, financially, academically, our
relevance that is at stake. Yet our leaders are not thinking of how to restore
the battered image of the profession and re-launch it with vigour, zeal,
commitment and dedication so that to it can take its rightful place in the
scheme of things in Nigeria
Our dear
President, we are very much aware that some of these issues raised are national
issues, but we believe that we can work with you so that we can have a vibrant
and committed body like Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) and to chart a new
course for the development of the profession.
Long live
Environmental Health Profession.
Long live Federal Republic Nigeria
Thank you all,
Comrade. Clinton Elohor Onovwede (Sanitariant),
Registered &
Licensed
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