Tobacco: The ruthless killer next door 1

•Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye, a notable essayist and columnist says that smokers are burning their lungs...

Today, as I allow my mind to endure the oppressive thought that tobacco still remains the ruthless killer next door, what then shall we call its producers and distributors? The answer can only be simple and straightforward: They are people who prosper at the expense of other people’s lives. They make their billions by ruining other people’s health, and eventually terminating their lives. They should therefore not complain if anyone refers to them as proud, happy, licensed murderers

Packs of Killer Poison

How these people are able to deaden their conscience to go on prospering and sustaining their own lives by producing and marketing a scientifically confirmed poison whose only benefit is its ability to cruelly terminate the lives of their fellow human beings beats me hollow? Tobacco never adds even the tiniest value to life; it only destroys it completely. Without mercy. This is a fact nobody has even attempted to deny.

The Nigerian president should put the concern for the lives of many Nigerians above his often whispered personal tastes and habits and take another look at the massive freedom granted by his predecessor to tobacco companies to fill Nigeria with their neatly wrapped and attractively packaged killer poison called cigarettes. If he cannot immediately ban the production of cigarettes in Nigeria, he should, at least, put in place stricter regulations that would ensure that tobacco manufacturing would automatically become a very unprofitable venture in Nigeria. 

I call on Nigerians with lively conscience and genuine friends of Nigeria, to join this clearly winnable battle, to flush these heartless fellows out of Nigeria. The question I have always asked cigarette producers is: can they boldly come out in the open and assure me that the commodity they manufacture and distribute to hapless individuals cannot be rightly classified as poison? Again, they should tell me one single benefit the human body derives from smoking cigarettes. Has it not been convincingly proved everywhere, and publicly admitted even by tobacco producers, that tobacco is a merciless killer, an unrelenting cannibal that devours a man when his life is sweetest to him?  If then tobacco is a proven killer, can’t those who manufacture and circulate it in society be classified as murderers? Hasn’t even our own Federal Ministry of Health been shouting and warning us with passion, sense of urgency and alarm that TOBACCO SMOKERS ARE LIABLE TO DIE YOUNG?

What the Health Ministry here is saying is very simple: Anyone offering you a cigarette is only wishing you an untimely death. In fact, he is just saying to you: May you die young! That is exactly what tobacco companies, including the government that issued them the license to transact their deadly trade in Nigeria are wickedly wishing their Nigerian victims! Yes, tobacco companies manufacture products that make people to die young. How wicked and heartless could they be!

Before now, these tobacco companies would erect fresh, beautiful billboards, and fill several pages of newspapers and magazines with glossy adverts. Unfortunately, that option is no longer available to them, because of the ban on outdoor advertising of their lethal products. I am glad that those pleasant pictures of vivacious achievers smiling home with glittering laurels just because they were hooked to particular brands of cigarette which used to adorn glossy billboards and magazine pages, and which had proved irresistible baits to several people, especially youths, have now vanished from the public domain. 

As a youth, the elegant, gallant, athletic rodeo man whose image marketed the 555 brand of cigarette was my best idea of a handsome, hard-working winner. My friends and I admired him, carried his photographs about, and yearned to smoke 555 in order to grow up and become energetic and vivacious like him. One wonders how many youths that have been terminally impaired because they went beyond mere fantasies or obsession with their cigarette heroes and became chain-smokers and irredeemable addicts. Managers of tobacco adverts are so adept in this grand art of monumental deception that their victims never suspect any harm until they have willingly placed their heads on the slaughter slab. Indeed, only very few are able to look beyond the meretricious pictures and the pernicious pomp of cigarette promotional stunt and see the blood-curdling pictures of piecemeally ruined lungs and other sensitive organs, murky, chimney-like breath tracts and heart region, the looming merciless and spine-chilling fangs of an all devouring cancer, tuberculosis, sundry lung and heart diseases, and their associate unyielding killers. 

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Nigeria Tobacco Control Bill, the world is watching

-AKINSHOLA OWOEYE

The lackadaisical attitude of our lawmakers on the National Tobacco Control Bill (NTCB) has generated concern among serious-minded Nigerians within and outside the country. The Senate Committee on Health chaired by Senator Iyabo-Obasanjo Bello was given two weeks by Senate President David Mark to produce a report on the Public Hearing organised by the same Committee. But the Committee is yet to produce the report for adoption at the plenary of the Senate.

The action of the lawmakers calls for obvious questions, such as 'when would the bill be passed?' Would the law makers allow the tobacco industry to continue to exploit the innocent youths? How long would it take the lawmakers to pass a crucial bill that has to do with health? No one can deny the dangerous effects of tobacco use. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), tobacco currently kills 5.4 million people every year globally, and if left unchecked, this number will increase to 8 million with devastating results for developing countries like Nigeria which will contribute about 70 percent of that casualty. In the 20th century, the tobacco epidemic killed 100 million people, and according to WHO estimates, it could kill one billion people in the 21st century.

The Public Hearing was an eye-opener for Nigerians, including David Mark, and participants. Over 45 Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), including local and international organisations, made presentations in support of the bill. Since the Public Hearing in July 2009, Nigerians and others stakeholders in public health including Babatunde Osotimehin, former health minister; Umar Modibbo, former FCT minister and Kayode Soyinka, WHO representative, among other eminent Nigerians, have waited for Senator Iyabo-Obasanjo Bello's committee to return the bill to plenary for adoption. But the wait and hope of 150 million people seem dashed.

If the bill is passed and enforced, two outcomes are possible: The level of national savings will increase and other forms of consumption expenditure will be substituted for tobacco expenditure. Studies in several countries have examined the potential economic impact of the complete elimination of tobacco use and production. The evidence shows that elimination of tobacco will not affect the economy. This is because tobacco use has many externalised costs (costs not paid for by smokers or tobacco manufacturers). This involves healthcare costs incurred by governments to take care of smoking -related diseases. When people no longer spend their money on tobacco, they will spend their money on other things. This alternative spending will stimulate other sectors of the economy. If the money is saved rather than spent, the increased savings are likely to have stimulatory macroeconomic effects.

But our government's lack of attention in calculating the economic losses of tobacco has contributed largely to the expansion of BAT in Nigeria. In 2006, a survey from 11 government- owned hospitals in Lagos State revealed that at least two persons die of a tobacco-related disease daily. It also revealed that same year, there were 9750 tobacco-related cases reported in these hospitals. To that end, the state averred that it spent N222, 000 subsidising the cost of treatment of each tobacco-related case. Each individual, the report said, also spends an additional N70, 000 treating the same disease. From the foregoing, the Lagos economy lost N2, 847,000,000. Note that this amount is higher in the northern parts of Nigeria where the smoking prevalence doubles that in the south.

The second outcome has to do with loss of production, an aspect which has not been fully addressed. There are three ways in which smoking affects production: one, it reduces life expectancy - thus the productive years of workers; secondly, it increases the number of the permanently disabled who will end up as a burden to our social system - consuming more and producing nothing. Thirdly, it increases absenteeism from work as a result of intermittent illnesses. Smoking, through its adverse health effects, reduces the quantity of goods and services produced and thus reduces the society's consumption potential.

The world is watching the efforts of those who have contributed tirelessly to this bill, and also those who would rather watch the country engulfed in a preventable epidemic. No contribution to the public health debate will be forgotten in a hurry. Nature will not forget in hurry too. To redeem our name is to save peoples' lives by passing into law the bill to regulate the activities of tobacco companies.

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BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO INTENSIFIES INDIRECT ADVERTISING

By Seun Akioye

Dominant tobacco manufacturing company in Nigeria, the British American Tobacco Nigeria (BATN) has intensified its Corporate Responsibility campaign with the full page advertorial in the Guardian newspaper of October 15th 2009.

The Corporate Responsibility advertisement published by the British American Tobacco Nigeria Foundation (BATNF) featured the various gift presentations to certain section of the tobacco farming community in Nigeria. Such presentations include goats, provision of bore hole and teaching the skills in fish farming.

The advertisement also coincide with an advertorial by the Nigerian Tobacco Control Alliance (NTCA) and Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) published in the Punch newspaper of the same date asking the Senate to fast track the passage of the National Tobacco Control Bill. The advertorial published under the title ‘Tobacco Facts’ is part of a series of enlightenment campaign lecture by the groups. The publication has dealth with various issues regarding tobacco and health in Nigeria

Meanwhile tobacco control community has reacted swiftly condemning the action and calling the publication of the tobacco company as indirect advertisement. The NTCA in a statement condemned the advertorial calling it propaganda. “There are more pressing social issues in Nigeria that BATN foundation can tackle not the feakle corporate social responsibility of providing goats and garri for farmers. This is indirect advertisement and we condemn it in totality. Let them however spend that money in looking for a solution to the various ailments caused by their products.”

Media officer ERA/FoEN, Philip Jakpor also in a statement described the publication of the CSR efforts as shambles. “ This is another way of advertising. It is designed to boost the ego and promote the products of British American Tobacco and the gesture does not in any way reflect the true belief of the tobacco industry. It has been asked and we ask again ‘ can a company that produces a product that kills its users ever be socially responsible? The first thing to do to be socially responsible is to stop the production of lethal products. Before they do that, we are calling for Corporate Accountability.”

Interestingly, advertising and marketing sponsorship of any tobacco products have been banned in Nigeria since 2004.

Nigeria Considers Tough Tobacco Control Legislation

-Gilbert da Costa

The Nigerian parliament is currently debating sweeping new tobacco control legislation in a bid to break the growing tobacco addiction in the country. The bill has strong backing from anti-tobacco groups and health organizations.

"Change starts from now. I dare to be different. I will remain smoke-free. I am the future, and the future starts now, So help me God. I am smoke free!!!," recite students at Shepherd Secondary School in Ketu in Lagos.

Students of the Shepherd Secondary School in Ketu, a poor neighborhood in Nigeria's sprawling city of Lagos, recite a "no-smoking pledge" at the end of a two-hour anti-tobacco lecture. The program is part of a grassroots initiative by anti-tobacco campaigners to counter growing cigarette smoking, particularly among teens in Nigeria.

About 25 percent of Nigerian teens, some as young as 10, are hooked on tobacco, double the smoking rate among men.

Salau Moshood, a 17-year-old student, told VOA what he learned."

I heard that smoking is not good for people at the age of 10 years and upwards," said Salau Moshood. "It makes them to die young, and makes them not to reach the place they supposed to reach. My advice for people that smoke is that they have to stop it because, if they don't stop it, they will have something that will affect them in their future."

Individual cigarettes sells for as little as seven cents each, and analysts fear that tobacco use in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation of 140 million people, could continue to rise.

The Nigerian parliament has responded with a tobacco control bill that would impose smoking bans, increase taxes and impose advertising restrictions. If passed, this could be the biggest tobacco crackdown in the history of Nigeria.

The sponsor of the bill, Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora, told VOA that the assembly has a duty to protect the health of Nigerians."

Under Section 14 of our constitution, we have an obligation, which we all swore to, in terms of upholding the provisions of the constitution," said Senator Mamora. "That section says, the welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government. So, we just need to safeguard the welfare of the people. It is important to us."

Even the Nigerian government, which previously granted generous concessions to tobacco companies, has withdrawn its support and filed a $45-billion suit against tobacco companies for allegedly targeting young Nigerians.

Senator Mamora says of the tobacco industry:"

They are no more than merchants of death, as far as I am concerned," he said.But not everyone is enthusiastic about a tobacco crackdown in Nigeria. A group of tobacco farmers from the southwest issued a passionate appeal to the senate committee on health during its just-concluded public hearing on the bill. The farmers asked legislators to consider the plight of thousands of poor tobacco farmers. Okeke Abiola spoke for the group.

"Our concern is that, if tobacco growing is banned without any alternatives - and I must mention quickly that we don't have any industry in Okeogu area, nothing other than this tobacco growing - we are concerned that without any alternatives, we will be the ones to bear the brunt," said Okeke Abiola. "For instance, if tobacco growing is banned, instantly 300,000 farmers will be affected.

"The World Health Organization says more than 80 percent of tobacco deaths will be in developing countries by 2030.

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Advocates demand FG probe BATN

Anti Tobacco advocates wants government to probe the British American Tobacco Nigeria (BATN) over alleged targeting of young people during the promotion of PALL MALL cigarette.

By Seun Akioye

There are many questions waiting to be answered by the largest tobacco company Nigeria, British American Tobacco Nigeria (BATN). Is it true that the company is currently engaged in an all night dance party promotional campaign for one of its brands Pall Mall? Is it correct that the campaign is being organised all over the six geo- political zones of Nigeria? Is it also correct that underage people were invited to such parties and free cigarettes were given out? Is it also true that such underage people were mandated to light a cigarette before gaining entrance into the party venue?

For Akinbode Oluwafemi and the organisation he represents Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth (ERA/FOEN) which has been in the forefront of campaigns to regulate the activities of the tobacco giant in Nigeria, the answer to the above questions is in the affirmative. The group had asked the Federal Government in a press release to probe what it calls ‘secret smoking parties’ organised by BATN to promote its Pall Mall cigarette. It also alleged that the campaign was aimed at luring minors into smoking in a bid to make them lifelong smokers.
This will not be the first time the tobacco giants will come under fire from different sections of the society. Last year, four state governments instituted legal actions against the company and four others for luring young Nigerians into smoking thorough deceptive advertising and incomplete information regarding the true nature of its products. The Federal government has since joined the suits bringing the total claims to about N10 trillion. The company has also been linked to the use of child labour on its farms a claim which the industry has refused to deny.
But the latest allegations from ERA/FOEN appear to be very grave indeed. According to Oluwafemi, the company had staged dance parties in Sokoto, Kano, Ilorin, Ibadan and at Gateway Hotel Abeokuta. He said the company had breached its own rules of not marketing to young people. “It is outrageous that BAT is still conducting itself in such irresponsible manner just weeks after a BBC documentary revealed how the corporation has been marketing cigarettes to young people across Africa and how it has used parties and concerts to lure people into smoking” Oluwafemi said.
Over the years, BATN has repeatedly denied marketing cigarette to young people. The company launched its 18+ programme in 2004 which it claimed was aimed at discouraging persons under the age of 18 from smoking. BAT’s regulations also clearly disallows targeting or marketing of cigarettes to minors. A statement of purpose on youth smoking from the company says “We believe that the choice to smoke should only be for informed adults”. Information gathered from the company’s website says in 2007, the company reported “running or supporting 75 youth smoking prevention programmes, more than 60 per cent of them focused on preventing under age access at the point of sale”.
Babatunde Irukera one of the lead lawyers in the litigation disagreed with the position of BAT on informed choice. “How many smokers do you know who pick up the habit as adults. They do only when they are young and cannot make choices. And what is worse is that to remain lifelong smokers the tobacco companies have engineered the ingredients of the product to include nicotine which is an addiction agent. So you pick up the habit when you are young and before you know it you are addicted. That is where the two Ps’ come in. Physiology and Psychology. The psychology is when you are young and you think smoking is cool based on their advertising projections. So they make young impressionable people smokers by PSYCHOLOGY but you keep them in the habit based on Physiology which is the delivery of nicotine that keeps them dependent on it.”
Oluwafemi insisted that the company was never sincere in its fight against youth smoking. “What we have is a company that lies and cannot be trusted. BAT initiated the 18+ campaign and goes on air to say it does not market to young people but it is now organizing dancing competition for the same youths to win free packs of cigarettes it just does not add up.”
He described the latest marketing promotion as appalling “BAT secretly gave out invitations to young people in secondary and tertiary institutions for a secret smoking party. Our investigation reveals that you are mandated to light a stick of cigarette which will be given to you at the entrance. The invitation they gave out did not indicate it is a smoker’s only party and in fact it was termed EXPERIENCE FRESHNESS.”
Nigerian Compass learnt that the concert was attended by minors especially females who were given free entry into the all night event which featured music from prominent Nigerian artists. It was also gathered that cigarettes were freely given out during the rave and free drinks were supplied to the first few guests. Checks also revealed that there were no checks on age limit at the point of entry.
More worrisome however is the fact that BATN did not stop the promotion after it was first reported and last Wednesday the company held another dance party at Option club on Toyin street in Ikeja Lagos, a situation described by the anti tobacco advocates as provocative. Toyosi Onaolapo who is the coordinator of Coalition Against Tobacco (CAT), told Nigerian Compass “If we expect to reason with the tobacco industry we are merely wasting our time, that is why litigation is the only way to force regulations on these companies. It is now quite clear that BAT is unrepentant about marketing to young people in Nigeria and the presence of the company in Nigeria is doing more harm than good.”
Oluwafemi said “BATN has declared a no going back policy on addicting our youths. The company cannot do this in Europe or America but it can break all moral ethics in Nigeria. We demand an end to this sham and asked the Federal Government to investigate this company.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) equally frowns against marketing or targeting of young people by tobacco industry anywhere in the world. Article 13 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control which is a global document for regulating tobacco use ban advertising, promotion and sponsorship of any kind of tobacco products. There are however more grim statistics from the global health body. If the tobacco industry continues to market to young people and addict more smokers, “a lifetime of tobacco use would result in the deaths of 250 million children and young people alive today, most of them from developing countries.”
BATN has been elusive since the story broke. Efforts by the Nigerian Compass to get the company to speak on the issue have proved abortive. BATN communications manager Aliyu Maa’ji did not respond either to email inquiries or reply voice messages. But sources close to the company insisted that the company has not in any way breached its own rules and is committed to preventing young people from smoking.