The Senate has asked the federal government to make health screening compulsory for everyone entering Nigeria and to start rewriting the country’s century-old quarantine law, a day after an Ebola case was confirmed in Abuja.
What the Senate resolved
At its sitting on Wednesday 21 October 2026, the Senate adopted a motion sponsored by Senator Francis Faduyile (APC, Ondo South). The resolutions call for:
- Compulsory screening of international arrivals at airports, seaports and designated land borders, with health declaration forms, temperature checks and symptom checks.
- Enhanced checks for anyone who has been in, or passed through, an affected area in the previous 21 days, whatever their nationality.
- Equipped entry points, with trained port health officers, thermal scanners, protective equipment and isolation rooms.
- Isolation and treatment centres in all 36 states and the FCT.
- Emergency funding from the Service Wide Vote, a point pressed by Senator Adamu Aliero (APC, Kebbi Central).
Faduyile told colleagues that no approved vaccine exists for the strain behind the current outbreak, and that screening should be done “without imposing travel bans or engaging in discrimination.”
A law from 1926
Senators also agreed that the Quarantine Act of 1926 is out of date. Senate President Godswill Akpabio directed the Committee on Judiciary to work with the executive and health agencies on amendments that match modern public health law and the International Health Regulations. Senator Tahir Monguno (APC, Borno North) had called for the change. “This should be immediate,” Akpabio said, warning that “if it spreads, there’ll be a major problem.”
No tour of the borders
A proposal for senators to visit the entry points the patient passed through was voted down. Akpabio argued the trip was unnecessary and could expose lawmakers to the virus. Committees on health, aviation, interior and appropriations were instead given four weeks to report back.
The case so far
The patient is a 42-year-old woman living in Abuja, the wife of a diplomat, who returned from a holiday in Uganda in early October, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Health officials have identified 44 contacts; none had shown symptoms by 21 October. Uganda’s government has disputed parts of the travel account. Health Minister Muhammad Pate says the patient is stable.
