A bill sponsored by the Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila seeks to empower the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and make it more proactive, has passed second reading in the House of Representatives, vanguard report.
The Bill which is said is for an Act to repeal the Quarantine Act, and enact the Control of Infectious Diseases bill
What is the NCDC Bill?
According to the Nigerian lawmaker the Quarantine Act provided a penalty of N500 for defaulters, but the Control of Infectious Diseases bill was proposing a penalty of between N200, 000 and N5 million.
The Infectious Diseases bill also seeks to empower the President and the Minister of Health to exercise certain necessary powers at first instance, during any outbreak.
Some of the lawmakers said they did not see the bill.
According to Rep. Nkem Abonta (PDP-Abia) said that he had only seen the title of the bill but had not seen the bill itself.
He also added the fear that the vaccination may be made compulsory giving the conspiracy theories all over social media on vaccination.
The citizens of Nigeria has taken to Twitter on Thursday to trend #StoptheNCDCBill.
