A letter by a group of unemployed environmental health graduates to Lagos State Speaker

A PASSIONATE APPEAL FOR THE INCLUSION OF ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH OFFICER CADRE APPLICANTS IN THE ON-GOING RECRUITMENT EXERCISE OF THE LAGOS STATE LOCAL GOVERNMENT SERVICE COMMISSION

Greetings to your highly esteemed office. We applaud your exemplary contributions in paddling the affairs of the state to birthing a new social order of monumental infrastructural development and economic growth, with resonated enhanced standard of living of Lagosians.

Following the job advert placement on print and electronic media by the Lagos State Local Government Service Commission which was slated for a period five days (25th – 29th September, 2017), we, the Environmental Health graduates made our application entries as directed by the commission.

Invitation of applicants for screening/recruitment by the Commission commenced last week through e-mail and SMS correspondence. While other cadres are being invited for screening/recruitment, the environmental health cadre applicants are being sidelined and in breach of the Local Government Schemes of Service 2006, Non-Environmental Health graduates including those with degrees in Anthropology, biotechnology, sociology, crop protection, etc are being invited for interview and placement as Environmental Health Officers while thousands of the real graduates of the profession who applied were not invited. Moreover, it is expedient to point out here that these Non-Environmental Health graduates lack in outright term the requisite competence and credentials to function statutorily and desirably as Environmental Health Officers.

We would like to reassure the state government of our willingness to gainfully contribute our quota in the enhancement of public service delivery, to the good people of Lagos state. It is also noteworthy that some of our members are not only Higher National Diploma (H.N.D) holders from recognized schools/colleges of health technology but graduates with additional qualifications such as bachelor and master's degrees with excellent grades, and have been serving the state government on a non-pensionable basis for almost a decade.

Additionally, we actively participated in the successful intervention programmes being organized by the state and federal governments in the epidemiological control of outbreaks of Lassa fever, Ebola Virus, Cholera and some other diseases. We are not in doubt that we would also be relevant in the arrest of this  recent outbreak of monkeypox viral infection.

For the avoidance of doubt, an Environmental Health Officer is a qualified graduate from either the university or school/college of health technology and duly certified by the West Africa Health Examination Board (WAHEB) and Environmental Health Officers Registration Council of Nigeria (EHORECON). Our job specifications are well spelt-out by the World Health Organization (WHO) which aligns with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations.

Finally, in the light of the above, we humbly request for your swift intervention on the delay in the job interview being experienced by our members, because we believe in your leadership, spirit of equality and goodwill for a sustained serene environmental health of the state.

Yours Faithfully,

_________________

BASHORUN N.O

Coordinator.

Cc:    The Executive Governor of Lagos State,

State House,

Alausa – Ikeja,

Lagos State.

          Honourable Segun Olulade,

          Chairman, House Committee on Health,

          Alausa – Ikeja,

          Lagos State.

Hon. Saka Fafunmi

Chairman, House Committee on Environment.

Lagos State House of Assembly.

          Hounorable Agunbiade Sunai (SOB),

          Majority Leader,

          Lagos State House of Assembly,

          Alausas – Ikeja,

          Lagos State.

                               

Commissioner of Police,

          Lagos State.        

          The President,

          Environmental Health Officers Association of Nigeria (EHOAN),

          Oshodi Isolo,

          Lagos State.

          The Chairman,

          Medical  and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN),

          Surulere,

          Lagos State.

          Chairman,

Lagos State Local Government Service Commission,

Old Secretariat,

P.W.D;

Lagos State.

Barr. Festus Keyamo (SAN),

1, Festus Keyamo Lane, off Gbagada Expressway,

Lagos State.

Barr. Femi Falana (SAN),

Old Secretariat Road,

G.R.A; Ikeja, Lagos.

Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu,

(Governor Emeritus),

National Leader,

All Progressive Congress (APC)

Bourdilion Road,

Osborne, Ikoyi, Lagos.