Public Health Laws in Nigeria: The Need for Review and Enforcement

Abstract: Public health laws came into existence in Nigeria in the colonial era. The laws aimed at promoting health, which also is the goal of community medicine practice. Awareness of these laws appears to have become low among both the public and community physicians. There is the lack of promotion of the office of the Medical Officers of Health who are the custodians of these laws. Non-implementation of the laws has contributed to the country’s poor health indices. The first versions of these laws were those for the various regions of the country. The Public Health Laws of Western Nigeria of 1957 was revised in 1958; and so were those of the other regions of the country then. The last attempt at revising the law was in 1998, when a draft titled ‘Public Health Laws of Nigeria 1998’ was produced and reportedly approved by the National Council on Health. This is now at the national level but is yet to be passed into law. We recommend that community physicians should familiarize themselves with the laws and remind the government about them through advocacy, preferably at the states, as of the previous laws. Public enlightenment about the laws should be carried out by the governments, spearheaded by community physicians. There should also be an intersectoral collaboration for their implementation involving the ministries of health, environment, lands and housing, education, justice, agriculture, police and other law enforcement agencies. Keywords: Public health, laws, community medicine, Nigeria. Title: Public Health Laws in Nigeria: The Need for Review and Enforcement Author: Chinyerem Cynthia Nwachukwu, Michael Chiemeli Asuzu International Journal of Healthcare Sciences ISSN 2348-5728 (Online) Vol. 13, Issue 1, April 2025 - September 2025 Page No: 165-170 Research Publish Journals Website: www.researchpublish.com Published Date: 10-June-2025 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15629811 Paper Download Link (Source) https://www.researchpublish.com/papers/public-health-laws-in-nigeria-the-need-for-review-and-enforcement