Thread by @AbujaDiscourse

A Legislature exists primarily to give checks and balances to other arms of government on behalf of the people.

We ask that @nassnigeria led by @femigbaja not to pass an #InfectiousDiseaseBill that could give individuals unchecked power over the rest of Society.

1. The #InfectiousDiseaseBill is supposed to give legal structure to public management of infectious disease outbreaks like the extant #COVID19 pandemic.

But what it does is make the head of the #NCDC and the Minister of Health powerful enough to be legal tools of Dictatorship.

2. Nigeria is supposedly a democracy and laws should be drafted with the intent to help build proper institutions that can be trusted and checked to treat people equally and fairly.

@nassnigeria should not enact laws that make gods out of men.

#InfectiousDiseaseBill

3. Section 58 of the bill says that police officers would be legally within the rights to not even need a warrant to make arrests.

Warrants exist to ensure that the State's monopoly of Violence which is given in good faith is checked and not abused.

#InfectiousDiseaseBill

4. In Section 20 of the #InfectiousDiseaseBill, the #NCDC DG is given the power to deny the right to free association through a suspiciously open-ended clause that gives the power to ban any meetings that they feel help the spread of #InfectiousDisease.

5. The #InfectiousDiseaseBill provides a loophole that can be used to damage the journalistic process.

Section 55 gives the #NCDC DG the power unrestricted power to forcefully request any book, document, or information from individuals or institutions.

6. Accountability is a key pillar of democratic process.
Where the option of accountability is nonexistent, you have a dictatorship.

Section 71 says the #NCDC DG and enablers won't be accountable for their actions in office.

This is unacceptable.
#InfectiousDiseaseBill

7. “No liability shall lie personally against the #NCDC DG, any Health Officer, any Port Health Officer, any police officer or any authorized person who does or omits to do anything in the execution or purported execution of this Act.”

In a Democracy? No.
#InfectiousDiseaseBill

8. The #InfectiousDiseaseBill negates the option of having the Supreme Court adjudicate on the legality, usefulness or appropriateness of actions made by the DG and the #NCDC.

It gives the Supervising Minister sole power to make a judgment on any complaint in Section 20 (5).

9. Section 20 (5); “Any person aggrieved by any order of the #NCDC DG under subsection (1) may, within 7 days from the date of the order, appeal to the Minister whose decision shall be final."

@nassnigeria has no right to place any individual or institution above the law.

10. As it is, the #InfectiousDiseaseBill gives unchecked power to individuals and institutions with no form of balance to make sure that democratic process is protected.

The elements of the Bill that enable dictatorial process must be removed immediately.