FACT CHECK: The Truth about the NCDC Bill and why it needs to be passed for the benefit of all.
Hi ladies & gentlemen, here is a background to the Control of Infectious Disease Bill sponsored by @SpeakerGbaja & why we want
@nassnigeria to #PassNCDCBill
The Bill seeks to repeal the Quarantine Act & to enact a new regime for the prevention of infectious diseases in Nigeria.
The Quarantine Act currently in use is outdated and unfit for purpose. The Act was enacted in 1926, before the second world war and thirty-four years before Nigeria became an
independent nation.
The Control of Infectious Diseases Bill passed second reading in the House yesterday and will now go through the rest of the legislative process during which it will be subjected to extensive review by both the House and the Senate.
The Bill empowers the Director General of NCDC to:
a. Initiate public health surveillance programmes or undertake surveys of people, animals or vectors in order to determine the existence of or the possibility of an outbreak of infectious diseases.
Some may ask….
Why Repeal the Quarantine Act/Weaknesses of the
Quarantine Act? Why now?
Well my guys, the Quarantine Act is a colonial relic that was intended to operate in a different age and to meet the demands of a different reality.
The Infectious diseases mentioned in the Quarantine Act are Typhus, cholera, smallpox, plague and yellow fever. That Act couldn’t have envisaged COVID19.
Smallpox & plague have been eradicated while cholera, yellow fever are no longer the guaranteed death sentence.
Genuine Critics and those trending the #StoptheNCDCBill have criticized the Bill because it grants police officers and health officers to arrest those who violate public health emergency orders issued by the President. Well……
The Power to arrest without warrant is not new under Nigerian Law.
Section 52 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act grants the police express authority to execute an arrest without a warrant where doing so is necessary to prevent the commission of an offence.
As for those insinuating the Control of Infectious Disease Bill was plagiarized, they should know that it is not uncommon for the laws of nations or subnational bodies to be based on laws that already exist in some other jurisdiction, or international conventions.
In Nigeria, the following laws currently in existence are based on foreign legal texts;
1. Child Rights Act of 2003
2. The Trafficking in Persons Prohibition) Act
3. Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act 2014 (I was part of the campaign)
Etc
There is no plagiarism controversy here except in the imagination of those promoting the organised campaign to keep the NCDC from being empowered to properly fight infectious diseases in the country.
Finally, there is NOWHERE in the bill that recommends forceful vaccination except you are pursuing an agenda not known to us…stop the conspiracy theories, propaganda, religious innuendos and fake news aimed at de-emphasising the importance of vaccines.
For those of that want to read a draft of the bill which has now pass second reading, download it below from the link shared by PLACNG:
You can find it here:https://t.co/pKkZgT7AIE
— PLAC (@PLACNG) May 1, 2020
Ọlákúnlé Abíọ́lá Sómóyè
