Institute calls for stoppage of bill in National Assembly

From Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Akure

Institute for Dietetics in Nigeria (IDN) has called on the National Assembly to halt the passage of a bill entitled: ‘Dietitian Council of Nigeria Bill 2016’ currently before it.
The institute, in a petition addressed to Senate President, Bukola Saraki, urged the lawmakers to stop further debate on the bill.
The petition, signed by the IDN Secretary General, Mr. Tajudeen Olutope, stated that the bill was unnecessary for the country’s health sector.
According to the petitioner, the bill has already passed through First and Second Readings at the House of Representatives, while it is currently before the Senate.
The IDN said having a law that would regulate the practice of dietetics in Nigeria was its priority over the years and added that the current situation whereby a faction of professionals in the field would be the one championing the move for selfish reason was worrisome.
The petition reads in part “we discovered that the proponents of the controversial bill are members of a breakaway faction of Dieticians from our professional body formerly known as Nigeria Dietetics Association of Nigeria (NDAN) which metamorphosed into IDN and to which all members subscribed to.
“The NDAN is restricted to a section in Nigeria. It is not a national association and it is not the national umbrella of the dieticians in Nigeria.
“At the moment, dieticians from the entire northern Nigeria and the other remaining two zones are in the main IDN, including some Igbo speaking ones that do not share the ideology of the NDAN and its leadership.”
The petitioner said apart from the fact that majority of dieticians in Nigeria had no input in the bill under consideration; the bill was outside the control of the Minister of Health who should galvanise its implementation whenever it becomes a law like other professions in the health field.
The institute said since the bill had scaled through the second reading in the House of Representatives, the Senate would be the only saving grace from plaguing Nigeria with a law that smears absurdity with regards to the Dietitian Council of Nigeria.