The National Association of Public Health Practitioners of Nigeria has urged President Bola Tinubu to enact the Public Health Council Bill into law so that the country’s public health practitioners can be appropriately regulated.
The group made public the fact that in 2022, the National Assembly passed a law with the working title “Public Health Council of Nigeria Bill, 2021” (HB 1236).
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They insisted that the plan would fix serious problems in public health if the president signed it.
National vice chairman of the association, Akinwunmi Samuel, in the company of the assistant secretary, Mrs Adeogun Adedoyin, and the public relations officer, Mr Ajibola Olarenwaju, made the appeal during a press conference in Abeokuta on Sunday.
By undertaking interdisciplinary research to understand the elements impacting public health and healthcare service supply, the organization aspires to protect and improve the health of Nigerians and people throughout the globe, as the vice chairman emphasized once again.
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On the other hand, Samuel expressed concern that their employment is in jeopardy and held the Nigerian Environmental Health Council responsible for their alleged abuse of power.
The speaker emphasized the importance of the gathering and the problem it has been causing in the community and the field of public health.
“We are forced to come out against the Environmental Health Council of Nigeria’s flagrant abuse of authority as representatives of the National Association of Public Health Practitioners of Nigeria.
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We have seen the Environment Health Council of Nigeria’s efforts to control our decision-making process, intimidate, coerce, and manipulate our corporate members, and undermine our authority and independence over the past few years. They have also disregarded the right of our members to associate with one another.
“The devastating fire that broke out at the Katsina State College of Health Technology in Jegga, one of our member institutions, is the most recent consequence of this.”
The association urged the Environmental Health Council to focus on regulating and ensuring that environmental health professionals adhere to the highest standard of practice to address environmental challenges facing the country rather than prying into public health.
Environmental Health has become so good at selling itself that it has abandoned its mission at the Federal Ministry of Environment, which is responsible for addressing environmental issues like pollution and public health hazards caused by lax sanitation regulations, among many others. This is both shocking and painful.
We humbly request that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu expedite the review of our reintroduced bill in the National Assembly or grant presidential assent to it so that we can strengthen Nigeria’s public health security and emergency management, readiness, and response plan. This will ensure that the public health profession in Nigeria is adequately regulated.
It is the responsibility of the Civil Service Commission’s Office to train a new generation of Nigerian public health workers. Mandate the Environmental Health Council to focus on its mandate at the Federal Ministry of Environment and stop encroaching into regulating Public Health at the Federal Ministry of Health,” the association added.