The Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), Dr Jide Idris, has opposed the proposed National Institute for Public Health and Infectious Diseases, Zaria (Establishment) Bill, 2025, warning that creating another federal public health institution with similar responsibilities would duplicate existing mandates, weaken disease outbreak coordination and place additional pressure on public finances.
Presenting the agency’s position at a public hearing on the bill before the House of Representatives Committee, Idris said while the NCDC fully supports efforts to strengthen Nigeria’s health security and epidemic preparedness, the proposed legislation, as currently drafted, assigns functions that are already vested in the NCDC under the NCDC (Establishment) Act, 2018.
According to him, Nigeria already has a legally established National Public Health Institute in the NCDC, whose statutory responsibilities include disease surveillance, outbreak detection and response, laboratory coordination, emergency preparedness, implementation of the International Health Regulations (IHR), public health research, workforce development and coordination of responses to epidemics and pandemics.
Idris argued that many of the provisions contained in the proposed bill substantially mirror those in the existing NCDC Act, noting that several clauses appeared to have been copied almost verbatim.
He warned that establishing another institution with overlapping functions could create uncertainty over leadership during disease outbreaks and public health emergencies, raising questions about which agency would lead surveillance, coordinate emergency responses, manage laboratory networks and serve as Nigeria’s official public health authority.
The NCDC boss also pointed to specific legal conflicts between the proposed legislation and the NCDC Act. He said while the bill seeks to designate the proposed institute as Nigeria’s National Focal Point for the International Health Regulations and assign it responsibility for leading the national response to infectious disease outbreaks, those functions are already vested in the NCDC under existing law and recognised by the World Health Organization.
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According to him, such overlapping mandates could create confusion among state governments, development partners and international organisations that currently engage through the country’s established public health system.
Drawing lessons from Nigeria’s responses to Ebola, COVID-19, Lassa fever, cholera and Mpox outbreaks, Idris stressed that effective emergency management depends on a single, clearly recognised national authority capable of providing unified leadership and coordination.
Beyond governance concerns, he also raised objections over the financial implications of the proposal, noting that establishing a new headquarters, zonal structures, state offices, governing bodies and staffing arrangements would require significant recurrent and capital expenditure.
He further expressed concern over provisions seeking to allocate a portion of the Basic Health Care Provision Fund to the proposed institute, warning that such a move could further stretch an already limited funding mechanism and reduce resources available for existing health priorities.
Idris noted that the Federal Government has already invested heavily in strengthening the NCDC’s laboratory network, surveillance systems, emergency operations centres, genomic surveillance, workforce development and outbreak response infrastructure, arguing that creating another institution with similar responsibilities would duplicate these investments rather than maximise them.
He maintained that international best practice supports having a single national public health institute responsible for disease surveillance, preparedness and emergency response, saying Nigeria adopted that model through the establishment of the NCDC.
The NCDC Director-General urged lawmakers to strengthen existing public health structures instead of creating parallel institutions, recommending that available resources be channelled towards expanding surveillance systems, laboratory capacity, workforce development, emergency preparedness and state-level public health capacity through existing national mechanisms.
He also informed the committee that the NCDC had submitted a detailed clause-by-clause analysis highlighting areas where the proposed bill conflicts with the NCDC Act to support lawmakers during the legislative review.
In his closing remarks, Idris reminded the committee that the NCDC is currently coordinating responses to multiple disease outbreaks, including Lassa fever, meningitis, cholera, diphtheria, measles and Mpox, while also strengthening preparedness against Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda.
He said Nigeria has spent more than a decade building a strong national public health system through legislative support, government investment and partnerships, arguing that the country’s health security would be better protected by strengthening the existing institution rather than establishing another with overlapping responsibilities.
While expressing support for upgrading the Zaria facility into a tertiary institution focused on teaching, clinical services and research to complement the NCDC’s work, Idris urged lawmakers to amend provisions that would create what he described as a parallel public health command structure.
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