Govs, others pick holes in Reps Infectious Disease Bill, say it’ll lead to confusion

The Control of Infectious Disease Bill 2020, suffered various blacklashes on Wednesday, during the public hearing on the legislation being proposed by the House of Representatives.

The Nigeria Governors’ Forum and other groups at the hearing picked holes in the bill jointly sponsored by Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila, the chairmen of the House committees on Health Institutions, and Health Services, Messrs Paschal Obi and Tanko Sununu, respectively.

Among groups that attacked the bill included the

Nigeria Labour Congress, the Nigerian Medical Association as well as a group led by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana.

There have been controversies trailing the Quarantine Act (Repeal and Enactment) Bill 2020, also known as the Control of Infectious Diseases Bill 2020, since it was introduced at the House of Reps and passed for second reading.

The Reps were said to have intended to ensure the bill sailed through, but following uproar over the bill, decided to organise a public hearing for it.

The bill is seeking to repeal the Quarantine Act of 1926 and when passed, will also repeal the Nigeria National Health Act, 2004, National Programme on Immunisation Act, Cap N71, LFN 2004; and the Environmental Health Officers (Registration, etc) 2002.

If the bill succeeds and is passed into law, the minister of health will be empowered by law to declare any premises to be an isolation centre for the purpose of preventing the spread or possible outbreak of infectious diseases.

It also confers on the police, the power to arrest and quarantine violators without warrant.

Section 13 of the bill also seeks to give the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Director-General the power to order the isolation of people having or suspected to have an infectious disease for a period of time subject to the discretion of the DG.

At the public hearing on Wednesday, different groups argued that the proposed legislation would lead to confusion.

NGF chairman and Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi, who spoke for the governors said:

“The NGF is concerned that the governors were not consulted in putting the bill together, neither was any role created for them, in utter disregard for their constitutional functions.”

The governor said the current Quarantine Act gave the President responsibility to provide such sanitary stations, buildings and equipment.

He said Section 8 of the Act gives state governors the power to exercise the responsibilities vested in the President under the Quarantine Act, where these responsibilities are not exercised by the President.

“The Act gives governors very scant operational space to manoeuvre and regrettably, the proposed bill took away even that. This bill takes away the only authority the governors have to take specific steps and measures in their domains during an outbreak of an infectious disease.

“A situation where state governors do not have any power to make regulations in their states in the event of an outbreak of an infectious disease, or to declare any part of the state an infectious area, is not only inimical to the country’s federalism but a recipe for disaster,” he said.

Fayemi continued by saying that the current situation where the COVID-19 regulations made by the President restricted movements in only two states – Lagos and Ogun –including the FCT “would have been chaotic” had the bill been the existing legislation governing infectious diseases and curbing their spread.

He said because the current Quarantine Act gave some powers to the governors, they were able to issue Executive Orders to ensure the control of the spread of COVID-19 in each of their states, since the regulations made by the President did not extend to the other 34 states.

Fayemi then said, “Taking away this power of the state governments in the proposed new bill would cause untold hardship and suffering in states and negate the principles of federalism.

“The bill vests all the powers in the President. The absence of de-centralisation of powers to the states is anachronistic and a recipe for confusion.

“Given the diversity of Nigeria and the country’s varying geopolitical and social dimensions, and learning from the current experiences with COVID-19, it is imperative that state governments are actively involved in helping to curb the spread of infectious diseases in each of their states.

NGF chairman also faulted the powers given to NCDC DG in the proposed law.

He said, “It is always dangerous to vest uncontrollable powers in any one person. The bill empowers the NCDC to perform certain acts, which are directly in conflict with constitutional guarantees to fundamental rights,”

Speaking at the event, the President of the NLC, Ayuba Wabba said, “The first issue I want to posit is that rights are important and inseparable. Some are so fundamental that they have to attain the status of being the hallmark of constitutional democracy. So, in making laws we must also safeguard laws and rights that are already fundamental.

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“Therefore, our presentation will be premised on some of those provisions that we think fundamentally they are going to infringe on existing rights which the governors’ forum has tried to highlight.”

A group led by Falana, the Alliance on Surviving COVID-19 And Beyond (ASCAB), a coalition of civil society groups, speaking said the bill would create draconian laws and lead to abuse.

Picking out some defects of the bill like the powers conferred on the NCDC DG among others, Falana said, “With due respect to the leadership of the House, the bill is superfluous, potentially illegal and unconstitutional.”

Speaking also, the NMA represented by its secretary-general, Dr Phillips Ekpe said, “The following questions ought to be asked: ‘Why the bill? Why the urgency to pass it into law? Why the public outcry? What are the remedies to assuage the outcry?

“Such laws ought to recognise the federal structure of the nation, and should not lead to a conflict between the national and sub-national governments in executing their statutory functions.”

Earlier, Speaker Gbajabiamila while declaring the event open, said that many comments on the bill were “ill-informed and outright malicious.”

He said, “There are those in our society who benefit from promoting the falsehood that every government action is cynical, and every policy proposal must be the product of malignant influence.”

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