Delay in Anti-tobacco Bill As Tobacco Firms Lobby Lawmakers

A forum organised by the Coalition against Tobacco on Friday in Abuja established that the delay in discussing the anti-tobacco bill in the National Assembly is attributed to the fact that tobacco firms had infiltrated the ranks of the nation’s politicians.

They therefore called for early passage of the bill in the interest of the youth and health of the citizenry.

A Psychology Professor at the University of Uyo and Executive Director, Centre for Research on Information on Substance Abuse, Isidore Obot in his paper entitled ‘Strengthening the Nigerian response to tobacco control’, said the efforts to push for the law might be obstructed as reports indicated that Nigeria was a huge market, targeted by tobacco firms from western countries.

He stated that due to high cases of anti-tobacco laws in the west, companies had concentrated on sub-Saharan Africa, mainly Nigeria, as ‘jewel’ in tobacco business.

Obot raised the alarm that tobacco-related health problems in Nigeria would be multiplied because the content of cigarettes sold in the country had remained higher than the ones sold in many western countries.

He said, “For us to achieve our objective of reducing tobacco-related diseases in the country, government must ensure the control of smuggling, direct prohibition of production, crop substitution, increased taxation and outright ban on advertisement.”

A former Lagos State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) said, “Their deliberate market strategy is to compound the nation’s problems; tobacco companies have no qualms in creating new tobacco addicts and health problems for Nigeria.”

The coordinator of CAT, Toyosi Onaolapo, argued that tobacco remained the leading cause of preventable deaths all over the world.

Quoting the World Health Organisation, she said, “WHO statistics have shown that tobacco use and exposure to environmental tobacco smoke are currently responsible for the death of 5.4 million people every year. If left unchecked, it is sure to increase to more than eight million in the current year. Unfortunately, 80 per cent of the casualties could be from developing nations, like Nigeria.