Workers at the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs on Tuesday locked out the minister, Imaan Suleiman-Ibrahim, in protest over what they described as prolonged neglect and poor welfare conditions.
The aggrieved workers, in their numbers, barricaded the entrance gates of the Ministry located at the Central Area, Abuja. They chanted solidarity songs and demanded the immediate sack of the Minister.
According to the workers, the protest became inevitable after several unsuccessful attempts to meet with the minister to address their concerns.
“The Minister was deployed to the Ministry in October last year, and since then, she has not had any meeting with the workers nor the unions. After several efforts, she fixed a meeting with the unions and staff on Wednesday, and we were glad. Every staff member, including the permanent secretary and all the directors were seated since morning waiting for the minister.
“We waited for the minister for about four hours because we were told she was returning from a trip. Surprisingly, she snubbed us when she arrived. She never said ‘hello’ to us nor even apologised for keeping us waiting for several hours. Rather, she gave us silent treatment and left for her office. We waited patiently for about an hour for her to come down, but she never did. That made us express our grievances,” a staff member said.
One of the union leaders, Alake Success, told journalists that the minister has shown no concern for the staff. *“In fact, the immediate-past Minister, Uju Ohanenye, is far better than her. In our ministry, there are no working tools, statutory welfare, training, and several others.
“We don’t see the usefulness of the overhead allocation to the Ministry. The Minister and her over 25 aides use the money. We use our personal funds to work for the Ministry. Cleaners are no longer in the Ministry. We clean the toilets ourselves, we buy stationery ourselves.
“We have met with the Permanent Secretary on this matter, and she confirmed that she has made several efforts but no positive response from the Minister. We have no option but to register our discontent through the peaceful protests.”*
The protesting workers insisted on her removal and redeployment to another ministry, declaring that she was unfit to lead the Women Affairs Ministry.
As at press time, the gates of the ministry remained locked, while the minister had neither addressed the aggrieved workers nor responded to their allegations.
