At a House public hearing on Thursday, a sharp split emerged over a bill to create the National Institute for Public Health and Infectious Diseases, as HSRC Nigeria and the NCDC urged lawmakers to stop it, while the NTBLTC, Zaria, backed it as a timely reform.
At the hearing organised by the House Committee on Infectious Diseases, stakeholders broadly agreed on the need to strengthen Nigeria’s epidemic preparedness and public health response. But they differed strongly on whether that goal should be achieved through the creation of a new national institution or by reinforcing the existing NCDC structure.
Presenting HSRC Nigeria’s memorandum, the coalition’s Chairperson, Dr. Lecky Muhammed, said the bill was well-intentioned but fundamentally flawed in structure, warning that it would duplicate statutory functions already assigned to the NCDC and weaken the country’s disease outbreak coordination framework.
Muhammed said the coalition, made up of civil society groups, health professional associations and media leaders, supported stronger investment in infectious disease prevention, surveillance, laboratory systems, workforce development and emergency response. However, he argued that Nigeria did not need “two national institutions performing substantially the same functions in infectious disease control.”
According to him, the proposed legislation would create institutional overlap, fragment governance and impose unnecessary financial burdens on an already resource-constrained health sector. He cautioned that by establishing a second emergency response institution, the bill could generate confusion over leadership and accountability during public health emergencies.
“Our recommendation is that the House should suspend passage of the bill in its current form because it duplicates the NCDC’s statutory mandate, creates avoidable institutional overlap, fragments governance and introduces unnecessary financial burdens into the health sector,” Muhammed said.
He urged lawmakers instead to direct legislative and budgetary support toward strengthening the NCDC, expanding its reach and improving its operational capacity, describing that path as more coherent, fiscally responsible and internationally consistent.
The NCDC took a similar position.
Presenting the agency’s submission, Director-General Dr. Jide Idris said the commission fully supported efforts to deepen Nigeria’s preparedness for outbreaks and emerging health threats, but warned that the proposed institute would perform functions already provided for under the NCDC Act of 2018.
Idris said Nigeria already had a nationally and internationally recognised institution responsible for disease surveillance, outbreak detection and response, emergency preparedness, implementation of the International Health Regulations, public health research and workforce development.
“The proposed institute substantially duplicates existing statutory functions. It raises concerns about duplication of mandates, institutional overlap, legal conflicts and fiscal sustainability,” he said.
He warned that public health emergencies required a single, clearly recognised national authority and that creating another body with overlapping powers could blur lines of command during outbreaks.
At a time of competing national priorities, Idris added, scarce public funds should be used to strengthen systems already built around the NCDC, including laboratory networks, emergency operations centres, genomic surveillance and outbreak response infrastructure. He said Nigeria’s successes in responding to Ebola, COVID-19, Lassa fever, cholera, Mpox, meningitis and diphtheria had depended on unified national coordination.
In contrast, the Acting Director-General of the NTBLTC, Dr. Dalhatu Abdullahi, backed the bill and described it as a historic opportunity to build a world-class institution dedicated to infectious disease control.
Abdullahi said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had approved the upgrade of the centre in November 2025, and argued that the proposed institute would broaden the centre’s mandate beyond tuberculosis and leprosy while preserving its legacy, expertise, infrastructure and institutional memory.
“The upgrade does not erase the centre’s history. Rather, it builds on its rich legacy by preserving its expertise, staff, infrastructure and institutional memory while broadening its mandate,” he said.
He, however, proposed amendments to strengthen the bill, including explicit transfer of all NTBLTC assets to the proposed institute, broader representation on its governing board, powers to establish schools and specialised directorates, and the creation of liaison offices, clinics and isolation centres across the six geopolitical zones.
Opening the hearing, Speaker of the House of Representatives Abbas Tajudeen, represented by Hon. Bashir Zubairu, said the exercise was both a legislative duty and a moral responsibility. He said the proposed institute was intended to improve Nigeria’s preparedness against existing and emerging infectious disease threats through stronger research, surveillance, diagnosis, treatment and outbreak response.
He traced the bill’s roots to an October 2025 oversight visit by lawmakers to the NTBLTC in Zaria, where members observed what he described as vast but underutilised human and infrastructural capacity. That visit, he said, helped trigger the reform proposals now before the committee.
The committee also heard submissions on a second bill aimed at prohibiting discrimination against people living with or affected by tuberculosis and protecting their rights and dignity. Tajudeen said the legislation was designed to fill a legal gap that had discouraged many from seeking TB testing and treatment out of fear of stigma.
Chairman of the committee, Hon. Mark Udo Esset, said memoranda had been received from government institutions, professional associations, development partners and other stakeholders, and assured participants that all submissions would be carefully reviewed during clause-by-clause consideration of the bills.
He said the committee remained committed to producing legislation that would strengthen Nigeria’s preparedness for infectious disease outbreaks, promote scientific research and innovation, and protect the rights of people affected by tuberculosis, without creating avoidable institutional conflicts.
Crediblenewsng.com
