The Bill seeks to repeal the Quarantine Act and to enact a new regime for the prevention of infectious diseases in Nigeria and for preventing the spread of infectious diseases when they do occur 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 The Quarantine Act currently in use is outdated and unfit for purpose.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 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. This process will improve and perfect the Bill before it becomes law.
The Bill proposes a new operational framework that recognises the existence of the NCDC and empowers the Director General of the Centre to take necessary action to prevent the introduction of infectious diseases into Nigeria by travellers coming in from air, sea or land.
The Bill further amongst others, empowers the Director General 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.
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.
•Imagine a world where the DG of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) had the authority as far back as December or January to begin surveillance of travellers into the country; or
•Take other more drastic measures before the Coronavirus ever had the chance to make it to our shores. That is a world where we would have been much safer, and we would not have to suffer the near total paralysis of our national economy brought on by the Coronavirus disease.
B.Conduct Post-mortem examination where there is reasonable suspicion that the deceased might have been a carrier of an infectious disease.
•Hundreds of people have recently died in Kano, and there is no legal framework for the government to try to determine conclusively how and why these people have died. It could be the Coronavirus, or it could even be some other deadly disease that we are not currently aware of.
C.Take action to prevent overcrowding of premises where there are reasonable grounds to believe that such overcrowding exposes the occupants thereof to the risk of infection by an infectious disease.
In addition to the above, the Bill also makes the following offences under the law for:
a.For a person who knows, or has reason to suspect, that he is a case or carrier or contact of an infectious disease to expose other persons to the risk of infection by his presence.
a.For a person who knows, or has reason to suspect, that he is a case or carrier or contact of an infectious disease to expose other persons to the risk of infection by his presence.
•We have all seen the reports of people who have tested positive or have reason to suspect that they might be positive doing things such as breaking out of the isolation centres and travelling on public transport.
We do not have the ability under the law today to take any action against such people. This leaves us at the mercy of others’ irresponsibility and disregard for the common good.
2.Why Repeal the Quarantine Act/Weaknesses of the Quarantine Act? Why now?
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 Quarantine Act is a colonial relic that was intended to operate in a different age and to meet the demands of a different reality.
Every area of the Bill is outdated, from the concerns it seeks to address through to the penalties it imposes. Identified weaknesses of the Quarantine Act include –
A.Infectious Disease under the Act – The only infectious diseases recognised in the Quarantine Act are Typhus, cholera, smallpox, plague and yellow fever.
•Both smallpox and the plague have been effectively eradicated. Due to advancements in medical technology and expertise, cholera, typhus, and yellow fever are no longer the guaranteed death sentence, they were at the time the Quarantine Act came into force.
Yet these are the disease that our nation’s primary public health emergency law is designed to address.
•There is no provision in the Act for the newer and infinitely more deadly infectious diseases such as the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Swine Influenza and of course, the recently discovered Coronavirus.
•The Quarantine Act gives the President the Authority to define new “dangerous infectious disease”, by notice. However, the Act does not define what constitutes “Notice”, to whom such notice might be addressed or in what form it should take.
-The effect of this is that Mr President, in relying on the Quarantine Act to manage the Federal Government’s response to Coronavirus, might arguably be acting illegally because the Coronavirus is not one of the dangerous infectious diseases to which the Act applies.
B.Penalties – The most sever fine contained in the Act is for the sum of N200 for any person found in violation of any of the provisions of the Act involving serious infractions such as the wilful transmission of infectious diseases or failure to adhere to public health orders.
c.Sanitary standards – The Sanitary standards set out in the Quarantine Act are based on International Sanitary Regulations adopted by the World Health Organisation in 1951.
Essentially, we are fighting modern diseases and pandemics based on assumptions about law, public policy and healthcare that are so outdated as to be completely ineffective.
Essentially, we are fighting modern diseases and pandemics based on assumptions about law, public policy and healthcare that are so outdated as to be completely ineffective.
D.Air Travel – The Quarantine Act was passed at a time before air travel became popular and it makes no provision for the prevention of infectious diseases coming in by air travellers through the airports.
The Act makes no mention of airports, aeroplanes and does not envision any regulations on air travel or airports.
•To the extent that the President’s current lockdown of air borders is based on powers derived from the Quarantine Act, he is only exercising inferred authority which can successfully be challenged in the courts.
e.Why now? The unfortunate arrival of the novel and deadly Coronavirus on our shores has made clear that there is a clear and present need to improve the legal framework for managing this and other possible public health emergencies.
3.Criticisms of the Proposed Bill
A.Power to Arrest without Warrant in Sections 9(b), 15(6), 57(1)(2)(3).
A.Power to Arrest without Warrant in Sections 9(b), 15(6), 57(1)(2)(3).
The Bill grants authorised police officers and health officers to arrest without warrant persons (a) who are in violation of public health emergency orders issued by the President (b) who leave an isolation area without permission
(c) who conduct themselves in a manner that if left unchecked, will further the spread of infectious diseases.
The Power to arrest without warrant is not new under Nigerian Law. Section 52 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015 grants the police express authority to execute an arrest without a warrant where doing so is necessary to prevent the commission of an offence.
The threshold here is merely reasonable suspicion. There are twenty-three (23) provisions allowing for arrest without warrant in the Criminal Code Act.
ii.These are all necessary provisions for when it is not feasible to expect an officer of the law to obtain a warrant before executing an arrest.
-Imagine, for example that a police officer is called to apprehend an infected person who is about to escape from an infected area
-Imagine, for example that a police officer is called to apprehend an infected person who is about to escape from an infected area
or has escaped from an infected area on a Sunday. To expect that the officer will first obtain a bench warrant in that instance is so unrealistic as to be foolish.
iii.The protection of public health will sometimes require the taking of extraordinary measures such as a total lockdown of the Federal Capital Territory and the economic Capital of Lagos, such as we are doing now.
You do not take such measures because you enjoy it, you do so because the alternative is the spread of disease and death on a scale that can have consequences for generations.
-Keep in mind that even now, any of the police, civil defence, state security and army officers on duty now can arrest persons who are found to be moving during the lockdown hours. None of those arrests will be conducted subject to a warrant.
B.Powers granted to the Director General under the Act.
i.In managing public health emergencies, there is a need to have a system in place that is responsible, flexible and wherein the chain of command is clear.
i.In managing public health emergencies, there is a need to have a system in place that is responsible, flexible and wherein the chain of command is clear.
This Bill puts the Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) at the apex of that ladder.
-The DG is not a politician or an officer of state security. He or she is not chosen on the basis of religious, or political affiliation.
-The DG is not a politician or an officer of state security. He or she is not chosen on the basis of religious, or political affiliation.
-The Director General must, by law, be a health professional with at least fifteen years of postgraduate experience in the fields of medicine and public health.
ii.The DG is not a Dictator. Actions taken by the DG are subject to Administrative Review and Judicial Review.
ii.The DG is not a Dictator. Actions taken by the DG are subject to Administrative Review and Judicial Review.
C.Similarities with Singaporean Law
Sections of the Bill are broadly similar with the Infectious Disease Law of Singapore
Sections of the Bill are broadly similar with the Infectious Disease Law of Singapore
i.Reject the Use of the word “plagiarism”. It is deliberately intended to inflame the conversation.
-There is no such thing as plagiarism in legislative drafting which is why under the Copyright Act of Nigeria, statutes are not protected by copyright.
-There is no such thing as plagiarism in legislative drafting which is why under the Copyright Act of Nigeria, statutes are not protected by copyright.
-There are no copyright protections on enacted legal texts. Where a formulation of law is found to be effective in achieving the desired objectives, it is standard practice to adopt and amend same to suit local needs.
ii.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 on international conventions when the objectives are the same.
-In Nigeria, the following laws currently in existence, Child Rights Act of 2003, the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Law Enforcement Act and the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act amongst others are based in form and substance on foreign legislation and
international laws including the United Nations Transnational Crime Convention and the Supplementing Protocol On Trafficking In Persons and the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child.
iii.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.
d.Provisions on Compulsory Vaccination and other Prophylaxis in the Bill
Suggestions that the Bill is a ploy to subject the Nigerian people to being used as guinea pigs to test new vaccines.
Suggestions that the Bill is a ploy to subject the Nigerian people to being used as guinea pigs to test new vaccines.
i.There are no provisions in the Bill making it mandatory for Nigerians to partake in vaccine testing. Criticism of the vaccine provisions are based on voodoo science and fear mongering by irresponsible who should know better.
ii.The Bill only seeks to make sure that Nigerian people are protected from disease through the administration of approved vaccines. No Nigerian will ever be subjected to an unapproved or untested vaccine under any provisions of the Bill.
iii.The Bill makes it clear that administration of vaccines can only be carried out by qualified and authorised medical professionals, acting within the limits of law and professional conduct.
iv.Vaccine exemptions may be granted based on health considerations.
v.Section 30 of the Bill is clearly to ensure that travellers entering the country through any of the ports of entry are in good health and have been vaccinated against dangerous infectious diseases to
v.Section 30 of the Bill is clearly to ensure that travellers entering the country through any of the ports of entry are in good health and have been vaccinated against dangerous infectious diseases to
prevent the introduction of those diseases into the country.
-If tomorrow, a vaccine for Covid -19 is discovered, shouldn’t we have a system in place that grants Nigerians access to that vaccine?
Shouldn’t we have a system in place to ensure that travellers coming to Nigeria do not carry that disease into the country thereby causing aa subsequent outbreak?
