Opinion: What Nigerians should not know about the Control Of Infectious Diseases Bill, 2020, By Kingsley Chinda
I should start this analysis by commending the Sponsors of the Bill for the idea that there is need to review and update our public health laws as they relate to infectious diseases to meet the changing times. What I call the spirit behind the law is very laudable but the letters of the law are poorly couched or copied and should be re-drafted to suit our Nigerian realities. However, credit still goes to the sponsors of the Bill.
– The NCDC Act that created the office of the DG gave him powers and also gave some powers to the Board of NCDC. Some of the functions of the Board under the NCDC Act are given to the Director under this current Bill. – All State Governors are today relying on the Quarantine Act to come up with Executive Orders to manage the COVID-19 peculiar situations in their respective States. If this power is removed, it means that the DG, NCDC has to micro- manage all the states and Local government areas in the country in times of health crises . This will be most inefficient.
– Nigerian National Health Act 2014 regulates health practice and practitioners in Nigeria, including the protection of the fiduciary relationship of Medical Practitioners and their patients. 7. Section 8 of the Bill removes the fiduciary relationship between patients and their personal Physicians on mere suspicion. The Nigerian Health Act still protects this relationship and is therefore in conflict with this Bill. This can only be reasonable after a test is carried out and the person is confirmed to be infected. A citizen can be subjected to inhumane treatment and denied his right to privacy by publishing his/her medical history without his/her consent and refusal is a crime.
11. Section 15 of the Bill empowers the DG to issue a notice to take over a citizen’s property and declare it an isolation center without the consent and permission of the owner. This provision is subject to serious abuses as perceived political enemies and or opposition party members could be easily targeted and/or abused in the guise that their property is declared an isolation Center without recourse to a Court of law. It runs foul of Section 44 of the Constitution .
14. Section 20 of the Bill talks about a carrier unlike other sections where a suspect is made to suffer 18. Sections 46 and 47 of the Bill provide for compulsory vaccination of children and adults with some specified vaccines. This should not be compulsory as in some climes, there are incentives given to encourage vaccination. There must also be an exception on health or religious grounds. Recall the Pfizer experience in Kano where vaccines turned a killer injection and in South Africa where HIV vaccines were deliberately administered on blacks. Vaccines sometimes have turned out to be dangerous.
22. In Sections 55, 56 and 57 of the Bill authorize the entry, search, arrest, seizure and disposal of any premises, thing, vehicle, document or person as the case may be without warrant based on mere suspicion and the private opinion of the DG of NCDC, Health Officers and Police Officers.
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