Ibrahim Suleiman
Health experts have called on the National Assembly to expedite the passage of the Bill establishing the National Institute of Public Health and Infectious Diseases (NIPHID), Zaria, describing the proposed legislation as a strategic intervention to strengthen Nigeria’s health security architecture and improve preparedness for infectious disease outbreaks.
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The call was made during a public hearing organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Infectious Diseases on the proposed establishment bill.
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Presenting a memorandum before the committee, the Acting Head and Chief Executive Officer of NIPHID, Dr. Dalhatu Abdullahi Aminu, said the proposed institute would transform the former National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Training Centre (NTBLTC), Zaria, into a specialist tertiary institution dedicated to infectious diseases, public health training and research.
According to him, the institute would provide advanced clinical care for complex infectious diseases, train specialist health professionals, conduct cutting-edge research and support national efforts to prevent, detect and respond to disease outbreaks.
Dr. Aminu noted that the centre, established in 1929 and designated as the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Training Centre in 1991, had served the country for nearly a century before President Bola Ahmed Tinubu approved its upgrade in November 2025 to expand its mandate to cover all infectious diseases of public health importance.
He informed the committee that he discovered members were working with an incorrect, ungazetted version of the bill, while his submission was based on the gazetted version published in the Journal of the National Assembly on December 8, 2025 (No. 77, Vol. 22).
According to him, hard copies of the correct gazetted version had already been submitted to the committee’s secretariat to rectify the error.
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Dr. Aminu said the proposed legislation would significantly strengthen Nigeria’s health security system and improve the country’s capacity to respond to emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases.
He also proposed nine amendments to the bill, including expanding the institute’s mandate to cover all infectious diseases, establishing liaison offices in the six geopolitical zones, creating an Infectious Diseases Elimination and Control Department, and empowering the institute to establish schools and colleges for specialist public health training.
Also speaking, the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the Public Health and Infectious Disease Management Practitioners Association of Nigeria, Professor Khadija Musa, commended the National Assembly for initiating the bill.
Professor Musa, who is also Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the Federal University of Health Sciences, Otuoke, Bayelsa State, described the establishment of NIPHID as a major step toward strengthening Nigeria’s public health security architecture.
She said the association fully supported the legislation, maintaining that the proposed institute would complement rather than duplicate existing institutions.
Drawing comparisons with international best practices, Musa noted that countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and South Africa operate multiple institutions with complementary responsibilities in public health and infectious disease management.
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“In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention works alongside the National Institutes of Health. In the United Kingdom, the UK Health Security Agency complements the National Institute for Health and Care Research, while in South Africa, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases works alongside the South African Medical Research Council. These are separate but complementary institutions, each with distinct mandates,” she said.
She argued that Nigeria, with a population exceeding 230 million people, 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, required a similar institutional arrangement to effectively coordinate public health functions.
“The bill is in order. It does not duplicate efforts but rather complements the existing system and will improve standards and technical capacity in infectious disease management,” she added, while recommending amendments to further strengthen the legislation.
However, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) expressed reservations over aspects of the proposed bill.
Presenting the agency’s position, Dr. Olajide Idris said some of the proposed responsibilities of NIPHID overlapped with the statutory functions of the NCDC.
He noted that Nigeria already has a national institution legally mandated to coordinate communicable disease prevention, surveillance and response, warning that establishing another institution with similar responsibilities could create governance and institutional conflicts.
“The issue is whether the objectives of the bill can best be achieved by strengthening an existing institution or by creating a parallel institution with overlapping responsibilities,” Idris said.
He stated that while the NCDC supported upgrading the Zaria facility into a tertiary institution focused on teaching, clinical services and research, its functions should complement, rather than duplicate, those of the national disease control agency.
“We support upgrading the Zaria health facility into a tertiary institution for teaching, clinical care and research to complement our work,” he added.
Similarly, the Health Sector Reform Coalition (HSRC) urged the House of Representatives to reject the National Institute for Public Health and Infectious Diseases (Establishment) Bill, 2025, arguing that it would duplicate the statutory responsibilities of the NCDC and weaken Nigeria’s public health governance.
The coalition said although it supports initiatives aimed at strengthening Nigeria’s capacity to prevent, detect and respond to infectious disease outbreaks, creating a new national agency with overlapping responsibilities was unnecessary.
According to the HSRC, the bill could lead to institutional rivalry, conflicting reporting structures and uncertainty over leadership during public health emergencies, ultimately undermining effective epidemic response.
The coalition further warned that overlapping mandates could result in duplicated data requests, inconsistent technical guidance and confusion among state governments, laboratories, healthcare providers and development partners.
It recommended that the National Assembly instead strengthen the NCDC through increased funding, legislative amendments and expanded regional operations.
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The coalition also suggested that if the objective was to enhance infectious disease research and preparedness in Northern Nigeria, government could establish an NCDC-affiliated regional centre of excellence, reference laboratory or training hub in Zaria without creating a separate national institution.
The public hearing attracted submissions from stakeholders across the health sector as lawmakers considered the proposed legislation aimed at strengthening Nigeria’s capacity for infectious disease prevention, research, specialist training and emergency response.