By Paul Effiong, Abuja
House of Representatives Committee on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Leprosy and Malaria Control has assured that parliament would take decisive legislative actions to combat tuberculosis, including pushing for increased funding and enacting laws to protect patients rights in Nigeria.
Chairman of the committee, Amobi Ogah made the promise yesterday during a re-launch of Nigeria Parliamentary TB Caucus at the National Assembly Complex in Abuja.
Ogah informed that his committee is working tirelessly to strengthen Nigeria’s TB response alongside other devastating ailments.
He equally promised to mobilise parliamentarians to sign up for the caucus and champion policies that would enhance TB detection, treatment and prevention.
He highlighted that nearly 70 percent of Global Fund-supported countries are facing budget shortfalls for TB response, with 10 nations alone facing $600 million deficit in 2025.
According to him, “Our role in providing legislative interventions and support to the response against TB in Nigeria is critical and cannot be overemphasized. We must take advantage of our position and the population under our control to fight the scourge.”
Nigeria, he warned, must increase domestic resource mobilisation, particularly since most African countries, including Nigeria, are yet to meet the Abuja Declaration target of allocating 15 percent of their national budgets to health.
To ensure that funding gaps do not cripple the fight against TB, Ogah urged parliament to intensify advocacy and push for greater financial commitment from government.
The lawmaker also pledged his committee’s readiness to work with the caucus for the purpose of making laws that will protect TB patients from stigma and discrimination, while improving their access to healthcare.
While commending President Bola Tinubu for committing over N700 billion to Nigeria’s health system, including TB interventions, he also lauded the first lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, for her N1 billion donation to TB eradication efforts across the country.
In his address, Speaker Tajudeen Abbas informed of the House readiness to take a bold legislative action and increase funding to combat tuberculosis, a disease that continues to pose a major public health threat in the country.
Abbas described it as a longstanding but often overlooked health crisis, stressing that urgent interventions are needed to curb its devastating impact.
According to the World Health Organisation, WHO, Nigeria remains the seventh-highest TB-burdened country globally and second in Africa, with 361,000 new cases recorded in 2023—a 26 percent increase from the previous year.
Worse still, nine percent of these cases involve children, while 63,000 of people living with HIV were co-infected with TB.
Despite past efforts, including the establishment of the National TB and Leprosy Control Programme in 1989 and alignment with WHO’s global TB elimination strategies, the disease continues to spread.
