NASS insists on passage of controversial Health Emergency Bill

The National Assembly has insisted on the passage of the Health Emergency Bill in spite of public outcries and opposition to the autocratic legislation.

Senator Chukwuka Utazi, representing Enugu North Senatorial District, in a media interaction on the Control of Infectious Disease Bill Townhall on Channels Television on Monday, had said that there is no better time for the passage of the bill than now, declaring that there is no going back on the Health Emergency Bill in the Senate.

Utazi, sponsor of the National Health Emergency Bill, emphasized that the National Assembly is passing the bill to fill the gaps in the health sector. However, the Senator may not have updated his records on health legislations to the knowledge of the Quarantine Act which had been reviewed over time or he may have deliberately chosen to lie on his claim of gaps in health laws to justify the desperation of the federal lawmakers to pass the controversial bill.

Senator Utazi had declared: “I want to say that there is no going back on this bill. We are already set on a voyage and all we want is informed input into this bill.

“There is no better time for any law to come into force. Anytime within the pendency of the four-year tenure of the National Assembly is the time to make any law and that is just what we are doing.”

The senator maintained: “It is very necessary and timely for this bill to come into place because there are gaps that are existing that needs to be filled. We need to have a legal framework to guide our activities.

“We cannot continue depending on executive orders one after the other. It is totally wrong. This is a democracy. We are not in a military regime where the executive will make laws for the people.

“We have the National Assembly that is in place and sitting and that is what we want to do. We want to take up our duties and do that job.”