The House of Representatives sounded a stark alarm on Tuesday regarding a severe financial crisis crippling the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
Lawmakers warned that the nation’s frontline health defense system has been dangerously compromised, leaving Nigeria highly vulnerable to a potential Ebola outbreak and other rapidly spreading epidemics.
The legislative intervention was triggered by a motion of urgent national importance introduced by Representative Amobi Ogah, who represents the Isuikwuato/Umunneochi Federal Constituency of Abia State.
Leading the debate, Ogah emphasized that escalating health crises in Central Africa demand that Nigeria immediately fortify its border surveillance and medical emergency frameworks. He pointed to a chilling update from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention dated May 15, 2026, which confirmed a new outbreak of the deadly Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus in the Ituri Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Given regional travel patterns, Ogah noted that this outbreak poses an immediate and severe threat to continental health security, directly endangering Nigeria. While the NCDC had proactively placed the country on high alert on May 25, 2026, to guard against potential importation of the virus, the lawmaker openly questioned how the agency could back up its promises without money.
“It is known that the NCDC received no operational funding in 2025, with no capital releases made to date against the approved 2026 allocation. Furthermore, the overhead releases are highly epileptic and grossly inadequate, which is in direct violation of basic international standards and constitutes an abuse of the Appropriations Acts. How then can the preparedness of the centre for emergencies be guaranteed?” he asked.
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Ogah further cautioned that a dangerous mix of dwindling federal allocations and shrinking international donor funding has fundamentally eroded Nigeria’s biosecurity defenses. This ongoing starvation of funds has left the NCDC virtually unable to manage basic operational requirements, paralyzing laboratory diagnostics, localized monitoring, and rapid containment efforts.
“It is extremely disturbing to note that, at present, this prolonged funding gap has critically constrained core national functions, including outbreak response operations, laboratory services, surveillance systems, logistics coordination, and frontline emergency preparedness activities in Nigeria,” he said.
Detailing a grim internal crisis at the apex health agency, the lawmaker cited a mountain of unpaid contractors, abandoned isolation and laboratory construction projects, failing biosafety infrastructure, and a catastrophic shortage of testing equipment.
According to him, “Laboratory reagents, consumables, and other materials critical for outbreak screening and diagnosis are almost completely out of stock.”
The current crisis stands in sharp contrast to 2014, when Nigeria earned global praise for its masterclass in public health by swiftly containing an Ebola outbreak introduced by an infected Liberian traveler. Public health authorities have repeatedly reminded the government that maintaining that world-class response capability requires steady, uninterrupted funding into diagnostic networks and emergency infrastructure.
Reacting swiftly to the motion’s adoption, the House directed the executive branch to immediately release all appropriated funds earmarked for the NCDC so the agency can clear its debts and restore vital operations.
Furthermore, lawmakers ordered port health officials to aggressively step up cross-border screenings to catch potential infections at entry points. To ensure accountability, the House Committee on Infectious Diseases was tasked with tracking the deployment of the expected funds, while the Committee on Legislative Compliance was ordered to ensure the resolutions are fully executed.
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