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Senate presses for mandatory anti-venom stocks in hospitals after Nanya’s death, urging swift action to save lives.

The Senate has moved to close gaps in emergency care by ordering federal and state authorities to make anti-venom and other life-saving antidotes routinely available in hospitals, especially in snake-prone areas.

Lawmakers acted after the death of 26-year-old singer Ifunanya Nwangene, known as Nanya, who died in Abuja after reportedly being denied treatment at two hospitals that had no anti-venom on hand.

Senator Idiat Adebule (APC, Lagos West) raised the matter as an urgent point of order and urged the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to set national guidelines that mandate minimum stock levels of essential antidotes in both public and private hospitals.

The Senate resolved that health regulators must make stocking these antidotes a condition for hospital licensing, registration and accreditation renewal for private facilities.

Several senators backed the motion. Senator Sunday Karimi (APC, Kogi West) urged priority for states with frequent snakebite cases, while Senator Anthony Ani (APC, Ebonyi South) said hospitals that fail to meet basic emergency standards should not operate.

Senator Titus Zam (APC, Benue North-West) warned that rural communities bear the worst effects of stock shortages, calling access to anti-venom a matter of social justice.

The upper chamber also asked regulators to ensure public hospitals receive adequate budgets and reliable supply chains for antidotes. 

It directed the Federal Ministry of Information and the National Orientation Agency to run nationwide public sensitisation on the need for prompt hospital presentation after snakebites and other envenomation.

Senate President Godswill Akpabio expressed sympathy for the family and described the death as “deeply saddening and unacceptable,” adding that Nigeria must do better to protect lives.