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Health News of Thursday, 30 April 2020

Source: www.mynigeria.com

Why Nigerians want the NCDC Bill scrapped

Speaker of the House of Representative, Femi Gbajabiamila Speaker of the House of Representative, Femi Gbajabiamila

Two days ago, a new bill was fronted by Speaker of the House of Representatives of Nigeria, Femi Gbajabiamila.

Rather suspiciously, the Speaker wanted the bill swiftly passed in the House of Representatives without all the lawmakers' consent, as reported by Vanguard.

Asides from the fact that the bill was plagiarised from the Singapore Infectious Diseases Act 1977, it seeks to give the Director-General of the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control power to detain any suspicious person and forcefully test the person for as long as they please.

Known as the Infectious Diseases Act, it is supposed to create a legal framework for the federal government to manage the special circumstances surrounding infectious disease outbreaks like the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which at last count had claimed 44 lives across Nigeria.

The bill is supposed to provide an updated legislative basis for the government’s anti-pandemic efforts, replacing the National Quarantine Act of 2004, which many have identified as the cause of least some of the FG’s initial flat-footed response to COVID-19.

The 44-page bill perused by MyNigeria.com is truly dictatorial in approach, vesting so much power in the DG of the NCDC to test dead bodies and determine cause of death against will; test anybody suspected to carry a disease; vaccinate, restrict the right to free association and several humanitarian free wills guaranteed by the Nigerian constitution.

The bill has hurriedly scaled second reading and can scale third reading if nothing is done before June 4th 2020.

Nigerians have trended this bill all day on Twitter and are not willing to grant the NCDC rights to their lives or a forced vaccine.