The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and other stakeholders have described the proposed “Infectious Diseases Control Bill 2020” as deficient in addressing salient issues.
This was observed in submissions made by NCDC alongside others at the two days public hearing on the bill which rounded off on Thursday.
The NCDC Director General, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu who presented the commission’s memoranda admitted that the existing legislation on public health like the “Quarantine Act” are not only obsolete but inadequate to address present challenges and manage emergencies.
“However, while the Control of Infectious Diseases Bill is laudable for recognising the need to rapidly strengthen the existing system for managing public health emergencies, it fails to adequately address several gaps that have been identified,”he said.
According to him, critical issues like information sharing among key stakeholders and the funding of the management of infectious diseases are absent.
“In its current form, the Bill is not comprehensive and several of its provisions do not conform with the International Health regulations,” NCDC added.
On their part, the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council stated that, there have been many reactions about the manner in which the bill is being hastily treated.
It could be recalled that, on the first day of the public hearing on Wednesday, the Nigeria Governor’s Forum (NGF), Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), and the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) also faulted the controversial “Infectious Diseases Control Bill 2020”.
The bill passed second reading on the floor of the House on 28 April 2020, and was reluctanctly referred for public hearing after intense pressure.
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