The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has opposed a bill seeking to establish a National Institute for Public Health and Infectious Diseases, warning lawmakers that creating another federal public health agency with overlapping functions could weaken Nigeria’s disease surveillance and emergency response system.
The Director-General of the NCDC, Dr Jide Idris, made the agency’s position known on Thursday during a public hearing organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Infectious Diseases on the proposed National Institute for Public Health and Infectious Diseases (Establishment) Bill, 2025.
While acknowledging the need to strengthen Nigeria’s health security architecture, Idris argued that the proposed institute would duplicate responsibilities already assigned to the NCDC under its enabling law and could trigger conflicts over leadership and accountability during public health emergencies.
“The core responsibilities proposed for the new institute are substantially the same as those currently assigned to the NCDC,” Idris told lawmakers.
He warned that the bill raises “serious concerns over duplication of mandates, institutional overlap, governance conflicts and fiscal sustainability.”
The NCDC was established by an Act of Parliament in 2018 as Nigeria’s national public health institute, with statutory responsibility for disease surveillance, outbreak detection and response, laboratory coordination, emergency preparedness, public health research, workforce development and implementation of the International Health Regulations.
According to Idris, public health emergencies require a clear chain of command, and creating another federal institution with similar responsibilities could undermine effective coordination during disease outbreaks.
He noted that the bill designates the proposed institute as Nigeria’s National Focal Point for the International Health Regulations and empowers it to coordinate responses to infectious disease outbreaks—functions currently assigned to the NCDC and recognised internationally.
“Creating another federal institution with overlapping responsibilities would generate uncertainty over leadership, accountability and operational command during disease outbreaks,” he said.
The NCDC boss cited Nigeria’s response to major disease outbreaks, including Ebola, COVID-19, Lassa fever, cholera, meningitis, diphtheria and Mpox, as evidence that the country’s public health system has evolved around a unified command structure.
Beyond concerns about overlapping mandates, the agency also questioned the financial implications of establishing a new institution with its own headquarters, zonal offices, governing council and workforce at a time of competing national priorities.
Idris expressed concern over proposals to fund the institute partly through the Basic Health Care Provision Fund, warning that such an arrangement could further strain resources already earmarked for critical healthcare services.
He said the Federal Government had invested heavily over the years in strengthening the NCDC’s laboratory network, surveillance systems, emergency operations centres, genomic sequencing capacity and outbreak response infrastructure.
According to him, establishing another agency with similar functions would amount to duplicating existing investments and run contrary to the government’s efforts to streamline public institutions.
The NCDC instead urged lawmakers to strengthen existing public health structures and review provisions of the bill that establish what it described as a parallel public health command framework.
Idris disclosed that the agency had submitted a detailed clause-by-clause analysis to the National Assembly, highlighting areas where the proposed legislation conflicts with the NCDC Act, 2018.
“The issue before us is not whether Nigeria should strengthen its public health capacity. The question is whether that objective is best achieved by strengthening the National Public Health Institute already established by law or by creating another institution with substantially overlapping responsibilities,” he said.
However, lawmakers backing the proposal argued that the new institute would strengthen Nigeria’s preparedness against future epidemics and emerging health threats.
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, described the proposed institute as a strategic investment in national health security.
Represented at the hearing by Bashir Zubair, the Speaker said Nigeria’s experiences during the Ebola outbreak, the COVID-19 pandemic and recurring outbreaks of Lassa fever exposed vulnerabilities in the country’s health system and underscored the need for stronger institutions.
“A country of Nigeria’s population and strategic importance can no longer afford a reactive approach to disease outbreaks,” Abbas said.
He added that the proposed legislation would provide a framework for integrating disease prevention, surveillance, diagnosis, research and management within a coordinated national system while promoting locally driven scientific solutions.
Earlier, the Chairman of the House Committee on Infectious Diseases, Mr Amobi Ogah, said the bill was partly inspired by findings from an oversight visit to the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Training Centre in Saye, Zaria, Kaduna State where lawmakers identified significant but underutilised human and infrastructural capacity.
Ogah disclosed that the presidency had already approved the upgrade of the facility into a public health institute and expressed optimism that the proposed legislation would strengthen Nigeria’s capacity to prevent, diagnose and manage infectious diseases.
The public hearing also considered the Tuberculosis Anti-Discrimination Bill, which seeks to protect people living with tuberculosis from stigma and discrimination and encourage early diagnosis and treatment.
Stakeholders from the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, development partners, professional bodies and civil society organisations made submissions as lawmakers continued consideration of the two bills.
The debate over the proposed institute comes as Nigeria continues efforts to strengthen its public health system following years of battling recurrent disease outbreaks, including Ebola, COVID-19, Lassa fever, cholera and Mpox. The outcome of the legislative process could shape the future structure of the country’s disease control and epidemic response framework.
The PUNCH