The
opening formalities commenced at about 11:30am. The National Anthem was taken
by all participants followed by the National Assembly prayer by Chairman,
Senate Committee on Health who was also the Chairman of the public hearing. The
Chairman, Senate Committee on Health gave his welcome address. In his welcome
address, he informed stake holders that the Bill is made up of 7 parts with 64
sections. The Senator buttressed on PART VI of the Bill which is “CONTROL OF USE OF BLOOD, BLOOD
PRODUCTS, TISSUE AND GAMETES IN HUMANS”. He informed the meeting that the
Committee does not have a mind set on the issue to be deliberated upon.
In attendance at the opening session
were the Deputy Senate President who represented His Excellency, the Senate
President, Chairman and Members of Senate Committee on Health, Members of House
Committee on Health, Honourable Minister of Health, Registrar/CEO MLSCN,
Director/CEO NIMR, Lagos, other CEOs of regulatory bodies AMLSN National
President and other Members of NEOs, AMLSN Branch Chairmen (about six states),
President of Blood Bank Society of Nigeria, Presidents of different
Professional Associations and unions, Civil groups, Religious groups as well as
Concerned Nigerians. The Public hearing was then declared open by the representative
of the Senate President.
ADOPTION OF RULES FOR DEBATE AND
DISCUSSION.
The rules guiding the debate and
discussion were read by the Chair, Senate Committee on Health. A motion was
moved and seconded by the Senators that the rules should serve as a document to
guide the discussion. Notable among the rules were; No use of abusive language,
no noise making, no clapping, address only the Senators, no praises and each
group has only five minutes to make their various presentations.
PUBLIC
HEARING PROPER/ TAKING OF ORAL CONTRIBUTIONS AND QUESTIONS FROM STAKE HOLDERS.
Fifty
two memoranda were submitted for presentation. Thirty eight were properly
presented, nine groups adopted their memoranda and five did not appear at all.
These groups might have left the red chambers when they were called to make
their presentation. The shortest presentation was made by Catholic Bishops
Council which lasted for three minutes. Their major observation centred on
section 51 of the Bill:
51
(1) A
person shall not without the prior written approval of the Minister:-
(a) manipulate any genetic material,
including genetic material of human gametes, zygotes or
embryos; or
(b) engage in any activity,
including nuclear transfer or embryo splitting, for the purpose of the
reproductive cloning of a human being.
(2) No person shall import or export
human zygotes or embryos without the prior written approval of the Minister on
the recommendation of National Ethics Research Committee.
(3) Any person who contravenes a
provision of this section or who fails to comply therewith is guilty of an
offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a minimum of five years
with no option of fine
(4) For the purpose of this
section:-
(a) ‘‘reproductive cloning of a
human being’’ means the manipulation of genetic material in order to achieve
the reproduction of a human being and includes nuclear transfer or embryo
splitting for such purpose; and
‘‘therapeutic cloning’’ means the
manipulation of genetic material from adult, zygotic or embryonic cells in
order to alter, for therapeutic purposes, the function of cells or tissues.
The
longest presentation debated upon was that of Pharmaceutical Society Nigeria (PSN).
The presentation of PSN lasted for twenty four minutes. The National President of
PSN was seriously interrupted by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Health in
conjunction with other Senators who are physicians. The PSN President
articulated his points very well. The presentation of AMLSN by National
President lasted for 17 minutes. The Chair, Senate Committee on Health and
other Senators were ready for AMLSN. Intentionally, they disturbed AMLSN
presentation. The National President in his own wisdom passed about 70% of our
opinions considering the fact that almost all the Professional Associations
with the exception of NMA were presenting the same opinions. Alh. T.Y. Raheem
(1st Vice President of AMLSN) who led the Blood Bank Society of
Nigeria used the opportunity given to him to tactically complete our opinions
with more emphasis on gray areas observed by AMLSN. The funniest presentation
was that of the Traditional Medicine Practitioners of Nigeria (Stake holders
nicked name them Baba Lawos) followed by Alternative and Complementing Medicine
Practitioners. These groups requested that they should be included in Research
Committee, Ethical Committee and other Technical and Sensitive Committees. They
called that they should be given Council that will be regulating their
practice. Their presentation brought in jokes and the guiding rules could not
stand. The NMA President was the only one who used abusive language during his
presentation and he was ordered to withdraw his statement and apologise to the
house. He immediately complied and came back to his senses. The NUPMTAM
National President was too anxious. He started by informing the Senate that
NUPMTAM was the brain behind making Mr. President not to ascent to the Bill at
the 6th National Assembly. His statement probably provoked some of
the Senators which led to another round of argument. Other health professionals
like JOHESU, MHWU BBSN, etc presented the same opinion with AMLSN.
GENERAL
PRESENTATION
National
Council of Women Society (Not too sure of their name) supported the Bill. They
called on Senate to give the Bill a speedy passage. Catholic Women Association
supported the presentation of the Catholic Bishops as well as Knight of St.
Johns (KSJ). All other Catholic Organizations present at the hearing gave a
rider to the Council of Bishops presentation. Some Non Professional
Associations and groups modified other sections of the Bill that will be
explained below under specific presentation. The Association Health
Administrators submitted a good proposal. It was observed by The Chairman of
the Public hearing that, the oral presentation was different from the copy
submitted. Casmir (FCT, Chair) and a few others said in broken language that
“them do juju for the Baba”.
SPECIFIC
PRESENTATION.
Due
to time and space, all Professional Association with the exemption of NMA
presented their opinions on section1. Their opinion can be summarised using
AMLSN opinion as thus:
Section 1: Establishment of National
Health System.
(1) There
is hereby established for the Federation; the national health system, which
shall define and provide a framework for standards and regulation of health services and which shall –
Opinion: After the words “health services”
highlighted above, insert the words “without
prejudice to the various relevant professional regulatory statues”.
Comments:
The need to add the words as suggested is borne out of the fact that many
provisions in the Bill as passed are capable of contravening some provisions in
the existing professional statues.
Section (1)
(1) (d) reads as follows: “set out the rights and duties of health care
providers, health workers, health establishments and users,” and
Opinion: Sub-section 1 (1) (d) quoted above
should be deleted.
Comments: the sub-section is
ambiguous and in conflict with the statutory functions of the National Council
on Establishment, which is empowered by the law to prescribe duties and
responsibilities for all cadres of workers in the public service.
Section
4: Establishment and composition of National Council on Health
All
the Professional Associations that their names were not captured under National
Council on Health requested that they should be captured.
Other
specific sections that were thoroughly discussed are: 6(2a), 6(2m), 8, 10, 13,
17, 32, 43, 49, 51 as discussed above, 52 and 53.
For
section 1, it was debated and agreed that all other regulatory laws of the
different bodies will still be in use. The Professional stake holders insisted
that it should be included in the Bill.
It
was agreed that all Regulatory bodies should be regulating their professions.
It
was also agreed that a forum should be organized by the Federal Minister of
Health to discuss the problems facing all Health workers.
It
was observed that the Referee was biased. (This was coined by Dr. Casmir, FCT
Chairman with sympathy from 97% of participants)..
Thank
you.
NANBOL
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