The Federal Government has been urged by the House of Representatives to act swiftly to stop the cholera outbreak from spreading throughout the nation.
The House adopted a resolution on Tuesday after House Minority Leader Kingsley Chinda filed a motion of public urgent significance with the title “Urgent need to check the outbreak of cholera in Lagos and other parts of the country.”
The legislative chamber asked the federal and respective state governments “to urgently put in place measures to effectively check the outbreak of cholera in the country” after the resolution was adopted during a plenary session chaired by Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu.
It also mandated its Committee on Information, National Orientation, Ethics and Values to “Undertake rigorous public orientation, enlightenment and education of the citizenry on the need to maintain personal hygiene at all times by relevant government agencies.”
It further mandated the Committee on Healthcare Services to urgently liaise with relevant stakeholders in the health sector “To investigate the root cause of the outbreak and report back to the House within two weeks for further legislative action/intervention.”
In his argument, Chinda noted that the House was concerned about the public and personal health of teeming Nigerians largely due to a lack of access to clean water, poor sanitation and personal hygiene etc.
He said, “The House is concerned about the rapid rate at which the disease has spread across Lagos and several other parts of the country within such a short time, especially against the backdrop of reports that the government has run out of vaccines to effectively tackle it, even as the death toll continues to escalate in those States.
