The House of Representatives has sounded a major alarm over what lawmakers described as a crippling funding crisis at the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, warning that the country’s ability to detect and respond to a potential Ebola outbreak and other epidemic-prone diseases had been dangerously compromised by sustained government underfunding and the withdrawal of external donor support.
The motion, sponsored by Representative Amobi Ogah and adopted on a matter of urgent national importance, alleged that the NCDC received no operational funding in 2025 and that no capital releases had been made against its approved 2026 budget allocation. Ogah said overhead releases to the agency had been irregular and grossly inadequate, violating both established international standards and the provisions of the Appropriation Acts.
He told the House that laboratory reagents, consumables, and essential materials needed for disease screening and diagnosis were almost completely exhausted, limiting the country’s capacity for early detection. He said vendors for critical goods and services had not been paid in more than a year, stalling strategic projects including zonal laboratories, treatment centers, and isolation facilities. Resources for simulation exercises, preparedness drills, and after-action reviews had dried up, and biosafety infrastructure for handling highly infectious pathogens remained grossly inadequate.
The concern was particularly acute because Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on May 15 confirmed an outbreak of the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola virus in Ituri Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a strain for which no licensed vaccine or targeted medical treatment exists. NCDC Director-General Dr. Jide Idris on May 25 placed Nigeria at high risk of Ebola importation.
The House directed the executive to immediately release all approved NCDC funding captured in the Appropriation Acts, mandated its Committee on Infectious Diseases to monitor fund utilization, called on Port Health Authorities to intensify border surveillance, and directed the Committee on Legislative Compliance to enforce the resolutions.
The Federal Ministry of Health said no confirmed Ebola case had been recorded in Nigeria and outlined activated measures including thermal screening of arriving travelers, mandatory health declaration forms, enhanced traveler risk assessment at all points of entry, secondary screening and isolation protocols, and strengthened coordination with immigration, aviation, maritime, and border management authorities.
World Health Organization Health Emergencies Program Executive Director Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, a former NCDC director-general, said Nigeria was at low risk of an Ebola outbreak given its distance from affected countries and the limitations on cross-border spread, but warned that every country needed to be able to detect a case if one arrived and have appropriate public health response mechanisms in place.
