More than 90 per cent of Nigeria's proposed Infectious Disease Bill is plagiarised from Singapore's 1977 Infectious Disease Act, Nigerian media reported.

Plagiarised Bill aims to address Covid-19 and Lassa fever outbreaks in Nigeria

According to Sahara Reporters, the proposed piece of legislation is aimed at addressing the outbreak of infectious Covid-19 and Lassa fever diseases in the country.

The legislation has also reportedly been largely lifted word-for-word from Singapore's original version, albeit with minor changes to the titles and sections in the bill, Nigeria-based International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) further reported.

The following sections from both the Nigerian Bill and legislation from Singapore were provided by Nigerian media as examples of how the Bill was plagiarised.

British media The Times further reported that putting the Bill through anti-plagiarism software also found a 98 per cent match with the original 1977 Act from Singapore.

Mothership has been unable to verify if the version which was plagiarised was the original 1977 Act, given that the Singapore Statutes Online records only extend back to 1987.

Physical copies reside in the National Library that is now temporarily closed.

Parts of Singapore's legislation unconstitutional within Nigeria

However, there are parts of Singapore's legislation that are effectively unconstitutional within Nigeria, Nigerian media further highlighted.

One such area, according to Sahara Reporters, is Section 15 (1) of the Nigerian Bill which states:

"A person who leaves or attempts to leave or is suspected of having left an isolation area in contravention of an order under subsection (3) may be arrested without warrant by any police officer, or by any Health Officer authorised in writing in that behalf by the Director General."

Taking issue with the phrase "without warrant", Sahara Reporters stated that such a clause gave Nigeria's "famously disciplined, well-behaved and incorruptible police and paramilitary forces" the power to arrest civilians without the need to back up their suspicion.

The exact same wording can be found in Singapore's current iteration of the Act, under Section 17 (6).

The same section was also highlighted as a matter of concern by ICIR, which highlighted that Nigerian security officers had killed at least 18 people in order to enforce the country's Covid-19 lockdown.

Not the first time Nigeria has plagiarised Singapore's laws

As it turns out, this is not the first time Nigeria has copied Singapore's letter of the law almost word for word.

Nigeria last plagiarised Singapore's legislation as recently as late 2019.

In December 2019, an uproar was raised in Nigeria over the introduction of a bill known as the Protection from Internet Falsehood and Manipulation Bill 2019, Aljazeera reported.

Sahara Reporters reported that the Bill was effectively a plagiarised version of Singapore's Protection Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA), with the only major change to the Nigerian version being the use of "Internet" instead of "Online".

It had been put forward by one of the country's senators, Mohammed Musa of Niger state.

The bill was last debated in March 2020, with much of the Nigerian public reportedly criticising the proposed legislation, Nigerian media The Guardian reported.

Top image collage left photo by Matthias Ang, right photo from Wikipedia