Senate passes National Health Bill without Iyabo Obasanjo

16.05.2008

The Senate finally passed the National Health Bill into law on Thursday despite the absence of the Chairman of its Committee on Health, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, from the Senate sessions in the past four weeks.

The Senate also approved the establishment of Healthcare Development Fund which would be financed from the consolidated fund of the federation.

Senator Obasanjo-Bello is currently facing criminal charges by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC) for her alleged involvement in the unspent N300 million budget of the Ministry of Health.

However, before passing the bill into law, the Senate deleted Clause 10 which dealt with functions of National Hospital Services Agency and Clause 61 on removal of tissues at post-mortem examinations.

Besides, Clause 52 was amended by the Senate to make it mandatory to secure a written approval of the Minister of Health on prohibition of reproductive, therapeutic cloning of human kind.

While amending Clause 56, the Senate deleted Sub-section 3, which states that an organ shall not be transplanted into a person who is not a Nigerian citizen or a permanent resident of the Federal Republic without appropriate authority.

The passage of the bill gave legal teeth to the establishment of Primary Healthcare Development Fund as Clause 11 formally established the fund which is to be financed from the consolidated fund of the Federation, an amount not less than two per cent of its value.

According to the new Bill, other sources of fund to the Primary Health Care Development Fund are grants by international donor partners and fundsfrom any other source.