The Senate, on Wednesday, moved to prevent a full-blown Ebola crisis in Nigeria, adopting sweeping resolutions for compulsory health screening of all international travelers, immediate emergency funding from the Service Wide Vote, and the urgent repeal of the 100-year-old Quarantine Act of 1926.
The resolutions followed an urgent motion under Orders 41 and 51, sponsored by Senator Francis Faduyile, a professor of medicine and specialist pathologist, who warned that Nigeria now faces a high risk of importation after the confirmation of its first Ebola case in the Federal Capital Territory.
Presenting the motion, Senator Faduyile told the Senate that the Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, declared in May 2026, has spiraled into the second-largest Ebola outbreak in history, with over 9,000 confirmed cases and 4,400 deaths recorded, and no approved vaccine or specific treatment yet for the strain.
He said the virus has already crossed into Uganda and, on October 6, 2026, into Kenya through a traveler from DR Congo, before reaching Nigeria.
According to him, contact tracing from the Abuja index case has already identified about 44 persons for quarantine and observation, while the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has rated the country’s importation risk as high.
The sponsor lamented that screening at Nigeria’s points of entry was restricted on September 22, 2026, to travelers from only listed countries of concern—a list that did not include Kenya at the time—leaving a critical gap that allowed the infected traveller to enter unchecked.
He further decried that many airports, seaports, and land borders lack Port Health officers, thermal scanners, and isolation facilities, while Port Health Services still operate under the obsolete Quarantine Act of 1926.
Nigeria, he added, is already battling Lassa fever, cholera, and diphtheria, and cannot afford the added burden of an Ebola epidemic.
Leading the debate, Senator Sadiq Suleiman Umar representing Kwara North thanked the sponsor for capturing Nigeria’s current vulnerability, recalling that the country was celebrated globally for defeating Ebola in 2014.
He warned that Nigeria must not lose that hard-won gain by allowing even a single case to spread, stressing that the prayers required a coordinated multi-agency approach, adequate resources, and strict border control with “no excuses for porous borders.”
Senator Adamu Aliero of Kebbi Central described the motion as timely and of urgent national importance. He noted that the Minister of Health had already outlined measures being taken by the NCDC on international media, but insisted more must be done given the nearly 50 percent fatality rate. “With about 4,500 deaths out of 9,000 cases and no vaccine manufactured yet for this strain, we must do all possible to control this disease,” Aliero said.
For Senator Mohammed Tahir Monguno of Borno North, the legal framework is the weakest link. Commending Faduyile as an expert pathologist, Monguno said the Quarantine Act of 1926 is obsolete and “out of consonance with existing objective and subjective realities.” He urged the National Assembly to repeal and re-enact a modern law—whether through a committee bill, a private member’s bill by the sponsor, or an executive bill—to empower health officials to work with modern technology.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio, in his contribution, revealed a disturbing lapse at the airport.
He said he received information that the traveller from Kenya entered Nigeria with no checks at all. “There was no temperature check or any form of screening, and the traveller himself was worried,” Akpabio said, adding that the case was likely discovered only at the hospital, not at the airport.
He recalled the 2014 Liberian index case and the Lagos doctor who died after first contact with the patient. “With 44 contacts already traced in 24 hours, and each of those potentially in contact with at least three more people, we are looking at a dangerous chain reaction. This is a major wake-up call,” he warned.
Akpabio directed that the Senate Committee on Judiciary should immediately engage health authorities and the executive to amend the 1926 Act without waiting for an executive bill.
Senator Ali Ndume of Borno South pushed for even tougher action, arguing that the situation should be declared an urgent emergency and that screening must not be limited to travellers from listed countries.
He pointed out that the index case came through Kenya despite earlier assumptions. “You don’t know where a person contracted Ebola. Screening must be mandatory for every traveller coming into this country at every airport, regardless of origin,” Ndume insisted.
After debate, the Senate unanimously mandated that health screening be made compulsory for all arriving international passengers at every international airport, seaport, and designated land border. This includes health declaration forms, temperature checks, and symptom screening, alongside enhanced screening for anyone who visited or transited an affected area in the past 21 days.
It also urged the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, and the Nigeria Immigration Service to fully staff and equip all entry points with trained Port Health officers, thermal scanners, personal protective equipment, and isolation rooms, as well as ensuring isolation and treatment centres are ready in all 36 states and the FCT—was also adopted.
On legal reform, the Senate urged the National Assembly itself, rather than the Federal Government, to immediately replace the Quarantine Act of 1926 with a modern public health law consistent with the International Health Regulations (2005), in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health and other stakeholders.
Our correspondent reports that the funding prayer generated the most debate. While the sponsor initially proposed adequate funding in the 2027 budget, Ndume claimed the President had already approved ₦10 billion for Ebola control and demanded its immediate release and accounting. Senator Ireti Kingibe of the FCT also urged that funds be used to procure vaccines, especially for Abuja where the case was detected.