Ban of cigarette in Abuja: FCTA’s clarion call to the media

NIGERIAN COMPASS

“Who is the next journalist we are going to lose to smokingrelated disease?” We lost Steve Kadiri, we lost Yinka Craig, and we lost Kubanji Momoh. Why is it that NUJ secretariats across the country are like smoking dens unlike the secretariats of other professional bodies? said Akinbode Oluwafemi, a former journalist with the Guardian Newspaper, and an activist against cigarette smoking in the countr .
Oluwafemi equally expressed worry that despite their exposure and knowledge, the late journalists, Dr. Beko Ransome Kuti, as well as the late songstress, Tina Onwudiwe who were chain smokers during their life time shared the same fate as they all died of tobacco related diseases.

According to him, Tina Onwudiwe who reportedly died of cancer started smoking cigarette at the age of 16.

The Programme Manager for Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth, Nigeria, who was in Abuja for a one day workshop on ‘Tobacco and the Media’ queried journalists on how long they would remain silent while tobacco smoking continues to take away some of the nation’s valuable ones. The workshop which was aimed at getting the mass media on the driver’s seat of the campaign against smoking of cigarette in public places in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, was designed to continue the enforcement of the ban of cigarette smoking in public places in Abuja introduced in 2008 by the then FCT Minister, Dr. Aliyu Modibbo Umar.

More than any of his predecessors, former FCT Minister, Dr. Moddibo , has etched his name in the book of history as the first minister to ban smoking of cigarette in public places in Abuja. It was in view of this feat that he was given an award by the World Health Organisation (WHO) even after the expiration of his tenure.

In the same vein, Modibbo, also won accolades from those who have been kicking against the sales and consumption of tobacco products in the country.

Modibbo indeed invoked the provision of Tobacco Control Act of 1990 on August 31, 2008 to make public smoking of cigarette within the FCT a criminal act, no matter how highly placed a person might be. Ever since, there have been repeated calls from anti-smoking groups to have smoking of cigarette banned in all the 39 states of the federation.

Most of the calls against tobacco smoking in the country also include heavy taxation of the product to discourage consumers as cigarette according to anti-smoking activists and health practitioners, remains a product in which consumers do not derive any benefit.

To ensure that tobacco and cigarette are totally eliminated from the country, most of the agitators have also been looking forward to how the tobacco companies in the country would eventually be flushed out.However, in all their campaigns against smoking of cigarette, a missing link has been identified which is said to be a key factor in ensuring that all efforts at shutting down tobacco factories in the country become successful. Still perturbed by the tobacco situation in the country especially among men of the pen pushing profession, who according to him have huge capacity for creating mass awareness on any issue, Oluwafemi asked: “ Is a writer that guy with a cigarette in one hand and writing with the other hand”?

The media, he explained, are trusted by the public and policy makers as they (media) connect the political agenda with policy agenda. He noted that Nigerian media has an history of advocacy journalism and should not fail in this regard to make the public see the evil in the production and consumption of cigarette.

He revealed that contrary to belief in some parts of the country, especially in Oke Ogun area of Oyo State where the British America Tobacco Company (BAT) has tobacco plantations, a recent report by the UN and the World Bank has indicated that tobacco business or cultivation is not a sustainable business anywhere across the world.

It is against this realisation that he said that both the UN and the World Bank have stopped sponsoring investment in tobacco related production or business.

But what is role for the media in the campaign? The anti-tobacco smoking exponent noted that though the failure of the federal government to impose heavy tax on the products has continued to encourage more patronage from the public, the mass media is feared greatly by the tobacco industry.

“The media is the only medium through which tobacco advocates can communicate with both members of the public and policy makers at the same time,” he said, adding “the use of mass media for effective tobacco control gained momentum in the 1990s in countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.”

Again, he stressed that mass media campaigns are an effective tobacco control strategy as they increase knowledge of the health risks of tobacco use, encourage quitting and motivate change in both smokers and non-smokers.

The former journalist, convinced that media can help win the war against cigarette in the country, advocated that media houses should create one ‘tobacco journalist’ per media house. This, he explained could be done when such journalists capacity is boosted to report tobacco issues.

Although he argued that tobacco to some journalists is not as attractive as other issues such as AIDS, malaria, poverty, corruption and bad governance, Oluwafemi opined that media can be used to advocate tighter tobacco control laws and implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) which Nigeria is a signatory.

Why the war against tobacco smoking? The anti-smoking activist explained that the adult smoking rate in Nigeria is put at 17 per cent which translate to mean that there are over 13 million active smokers in the country.

“Since half of smokers die of tobacco related diseases, it also goes to show that over 6.5 million Nigerians are on death row due to tobacco addiction. Tobacco kills, it kills over 5 million people every year,” he said.

He added: “Tobacco is a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, a major risk factor for cancers as well as a major risk factor for about 44 different kinds of diseases. There are over 4000 carcinogens in tobacco smoke.”

While corroborating this, the FCT administration Secretary for Social Development Secretariat, Barrister Habiba Sani Kalgo, said the media has a great role to play in the process of sensitising the public and should not be left out in the chain of reaction if all the efforts at making members of the public appreciating the ‘stop smoking in public places campaign’ must be successful.

Barrister Kalgo who spoke at the workshop organised by her secretariat in partnership with the Nigeria Tobacco Situation Analysis (NTSA) for FCT Press Corps stressed that the job of sensitising the public on the hazard of smoking cigarette would be made easier with mass media incorporated into the FCTA’s campaign against the habit.

“The workshop we are having today with the media is in recognition of your importance in the success of the campaign. Indeed, the power of the media in effective communication cannot be over-emphasised. We have brought our friends from the Nigeria Tobacco Situation Analysis (NTSA) to properly educate us on this very significant health issue.”

Currying the support of the mass media in the FCT administration’s war against smoking of cigarette in public places in Abuja, the Social Development Secretary said: “Our beautiful city of Abuja as you know has put its name in history books as one of the few cities in the world to have officially banned smoking in public places. We therefore urge you to join the FCT administration in our noble course of promoting healthy living and public health safety of Abuja residents.”

At the end of the workshop in which journalists from media houses like the Nigerian Compass, the Nation, Leadership, Vanguard, NTA, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Hot FM, Rhythm FM, Daily Trust, People’s Daily, AIT, ITV, DBN, The Champion among others, were present, there was an atmosphere of conviction among journalists that the war is worth fighting as at least tobacco smoking has claimed some of their loved ones. Hence, they cannot wait to see another one stolen away by a preventable habit.

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Reducing Tobacco-Related Deaths

By Ozioma Ubabukoh

African nations seem poised to undergo the highest increase in the rate of tobacco use among developing countries, and nearly 90 per cent of people on the continent, perhaps, remain without meaningful protection from second-hand smoke, according to a new report released at a regional conference recently.
The report, ”Global Voices: Rebutting the Tobacco Industry, Winning Smoke-free Air”, however, tend to point to signs of hope. Several African countries are fighting against the tobacco industry‘s aggressive campaigns to stop public health interventions by putting smoke-free laws into place, probably protecting more than 100 million more people since 2007. This report was published by the Global Smoke-free Partnership.
Recent data suggest that, with current trends, more than half of the region of Africa may double its tobacco consumption within 12 years. And to check this, ”Smoke-free public places are one example of a low-cost and extremely effective intervention that must be implemented now to protect health”, said Dr. Otis W. Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society.
In about less than two years, Kenya and Niger Republic have enacted national smoke-free policies, and South Africa, which has been smoke-free since 2007, according to reports by environment reporters, has been termed to play an important role in the region, demonstrating that smoke-free laws could work in Africa. In what seemed as a first for the region, Mauritius recently passed a law that is close to meeting the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control standards, ranking among the most robust anti-smoking measures in the world.
According to the American Cancer Society monitoring team report, implementation remains a challenge in many places, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana and Uganda. Even with the ban placed on smoking in public places in Abuja, the nation‘s federal capital, in 2008, by its former minister, Alhaji Aliyu Umar Modibbo, the city is seen as most vulnerable to the campaign of ensuring a smoke-free society.
”In Abuja, Nigeria, for example, 55 per cent of school students are not aware that second-hand smoke is harmful to health, and only 1 per cent of Nigeria‘s population is protected by strong smoke-free laws”, the report said.
It also exposes the tobacco industry‘s tactics to hold back legislation and convince African governments that tobacco is important to economic activity; that raising taxes on cigarettes and implementing smoke-free laws will result in revenue and job losses. In Kenya, for instance, it was reported that the tobacco industry issued a legal challenge to a smoke-free law passed by the Parliament. In Zambia equally, the British American Tobacco company has been accused of aiming to dilute proposals for a smoke-free law.
Some people have alleged that the campaign against tobacco smoking, especially in Nigeria, seems to be hindered by some journalists who would rather comment on any other health issue, no matter how agonising, than report or write on the dangers of smoking cigarettes.
According to them, some journalists are of the belief that the best writers are those who smoke and drink. And they have passed this notion to the younger ones planning to take up a career in journalism.
The National Coordinator, Nigeria Tobacco Control Alliance, Mr. Akinbode Oluwafemi, said this might be responsible for deaths of more journalists from tobacco-related ailments.
Oluwafemi, who is also the Programme Manager, Environmental Rights Action and Friends of the Earth, Nigeria, said, ”For how long are we going to be silent? Several Nigerian journalists and activists are aware that they are dying from cancer of the lungs and tobacco-related ailments, yet they have kept the stick burning. On most occasions, they lead the campaign against smoking, and immediately after that you find them lighting the stick. We have lost the likes of Steve the sleek Kadiri, Momoh Kubanji, Yinka Craig and Beko Ransome Kuti to tobacco smoking.
”Cancer control programme should be linked to tobacco control. Journalists should lead on awareness creation. It is time to be open about our friends, brothers and sisters dieing of tobacco- related cancers. Let‘s support the passage of the national tobacco control Bill.”
It is estimated that in 2010 smoking will claim the lives of six million people worldwide, 72 per cent of whom reside in low and middle-income countries, Nigeria inclusive. If current trends continue, tobacco will kill seven million people annually by 2020 and more than 8 million people annually by 2030.

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Revolutionary case against tobacco use in Nigeria

-Alexander Chiejina

…Tobacco control bill yet to be passed by National Assembly Without a doubt, the health, economic, social, and environmental consequences of tobacco use in Nigeria and the continent are enormous.
Little wonder the World Health Organisation (WHO) recently revealed that African countries are experiencing a 4.3 percent annual increase in the rate of tobacco consumption. This has resulted in an upsurge of lung cancer and related cases which are now prevalent in the society.
It was against this background that experts, at a recent training for health reporters on cancer reporting organised by Journalists Advocacy on Tobacco and Health held recently at Ogba, Lagos urged that the trend should be checked.
Speaking at the event, Akinbode Oluwafemi, programme manager, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth (FoEN), noted that tobacco smoking is responsible for more than 85 percent of lung cancers. This, he explained, is because smoking-related cancer accounts for 30 percent of cancer-related deaths, adding that renowned journalists in the country like Steve Kadiri, Yinka Craig, Momoh Kubanji, Tina Onwudinwe and Beko Ransome Kuti lost their lives due to the health hazards associated with the consumption of cigarettes.
“Research findings have it that there are about 599 approved additives in a stick of cigarette. However, cigarette smoke has been proven to contain over 4000 toxic and cancer causing chemicals; carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrogen cyanide, ammonia, to name but a few,” Oluwafemi disclosed. According to him, cigarette advertising, promotion and sponsorship such as ‘Welcome to London, cool feeling’ have made cigarette smoking appealing to a lot of youths, without some of these tobacco companies apprising the public of dangers associated with smoking.
Lending his view, Tosin Orogun, programme manager, Communications and IT, Africa Tobacco Control Regional Initiative (ATCRI), declared that the rise in cigarette smoking in the society is traceable to tobacco companies which increasingly target the developing world as barriers rise and smoking rates fall in more mature markets. “What we (ATCRI) have been trying to do is to facilitate the adoption, implementation and enforcement of effective in-country tobacco control policies, legislation and programs in Nigeria and across the continent,”
Orogun revealed. Already, a 2009 report on the implementation of smoke-free environments aimed at combating Global Tobacco Epidemic shows that five more countries (Djibouti, Egypt, Islamic Republic of Iran, Malaysia and Mauritius) meet the best practices for health warnings on cigarette packages. Three other countries (Israel, Romania and the United Arab Emirates), meanwhile, offer comprehensive help in the drive to eradicate tobacco consumption. In the same vein, only Panama has joined the small group of countries that ban all forms of tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, even as more than 90 percent of people lack protection from tobacco industry marketing. Six more countries (Czech Republic, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, the Netherlands and Seychelles) have levied tobacco taxes higher than 75 percent of retail price.
Lastly, of the world’s 100 most populous cities, 22 are smoke-free. Sadly, though, reports from the recently concluded media summit hosted by the American Cancer Society ahead of the AORTIC cancer in Africa, stated that 55 percent of school students are not aware that secondhand smoke is harmful to health, and only 1 percent of Nigeria’s population are protected by strong smoke-free laws. This lays bare the fact that if nothing is done to hastily check public smoking in the country, the rising figures of cancer and other non-communicable diseases may remain.
The bill to ban cigarette smoking in public places which had its public hearing before the National Assembly 19 July this year should quickly be passed into law. A part of the bill which seeks to protect people from secondhand smoke, raise taxes on tobacco, enforce a level of ban on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship would in the long run, save Nigerians from self- inducing cancer types.

TOBACCO SMOKING - a sure way to contract LUNG CANCER