Group faults BATN over investment in Nigeria

The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has faulted claims by British America Tobacco Nigeria (BATN) that its investment in Nigeria has been beneficial to the country.

ERA/FoEN in a statement said it was necessary to put the facts right following remarks by the Managing Director of BATN, Beverley Spencer-Obatoyinbo, at an investment forum last Thursday.

She had said at the forum that the company’s investment initiative in had turned out to be "a win-win situation" for the company and Nigeria.

BATN had in 2001 signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Federal Government to establish a $150 million tobacco factory in Ibadan.

Since then, the company has been targeting young Nigerians in a bid to recruit them as replacement smokers.

It has successfully done this through musical concerts, fashion shows and other promotional events like the Secret Smoking Parties that ERA/FoEN alerted the nation about when the events held in Ajegunle and Victoria Island, both in Lagos.

In a statement in Lagos, ERA/FoEN described the company’s claims as "sheer dishonesty", insisting that BATN continues to rake in profits as Nigerians harvest death and the health burden associated with the failure of the Federal Government to regulate the activities of tobacco companies operating in the country.

ERA/FoEN’s Director, Corporate Accountability and Administration, Akinbode Oluwafemi, said, "It is extremely fallacious and vexing for BATN to describe its stranglehold on the huge and largely uninformed Nigerian consumer market as a win-win situation.

‘’That remark is unfortunate and can be likened to a victory song by a company that has an avowed mission of conscripting new smokers through the glamorization of a deadly product."

Oluwafemi noted that: "For instance, in Lagos, one among the Nigerian states targeted by BATN for its image blitz, a 2006 survey in 11 government-owned hospitals revealed that at least two persons die daily from a tobacco-related disease.

‘’The survey also revealed that the Lagos government expends at least N216, 000 treating each of the 9,527 tobacco related cases documented while individual patient spends an additional N70,000."

Oluwafemi reiterated ERA/FoEN demand for the signing of the National Tobacco Control Bill (NTCB) by President Goodluck Jonathan.

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Pass Tobacco Control Bill, NGO Urges NASS

—Adeyera Olubunmi

A non-government organisation, NGO,  based in Ogba, Lagos State, Environmental Rights  Action, has called on the National Assembly to pass the National Tobacco Control Bill  into law without further delay.

Addressing a press conference to mark the 10th International Week of Resistance Against  Tobacco in Lagos on Monday, the NGO’s director of corporate accountability compaigns, Mr.  Akinbode Oluwafemi accused a particular tobacco firm which controls about 80 per cent of  the market of continued threat and misleading the yoouth into consumption of tobacco.

Akinbode claiemd that the tobacco company arranged secret smoking parties in different  parts of Nigeria especially in Ajegunle and Victoria Island in Lagos State. He said the  company was planning more tobacco smoking parties during the Yuletide from November this  year.

Akinbode said the tobacco companies have been lobbying political office holders with  partnership on public health issues, pretending to help farmers, retailers in order to  frustrate the passage of the law on tobacco control.

“It is important that while youth smoking continues to be on the increase, tobacco  companies continues to addict our youth they organise all over the country yet the  tobacco control bill is presently lying idle before the NASS,” Akinbode regretted. He  urged members of the NASS to be wary of the tobacco companies before they kill more of  our youth through uncontrolled consumption of tobacco.

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ERA raises alarm over smoking parties in Lagos

Enticing Kids to Smoke, One Hip Party at a Time

Remember the days when the Marlboro Man and Joe the Camel made cigarette smoking look utterly cool? Those days are long gone, right? Well, maybe for American youth, but not for kids in Nigeria.

According to Environmental Rights Action (ERA), a Nigerian NGO, one company -- British America Tobacco Nigeria (BATN) -- is actively targeting underage kids with their cigarettes. But this time it's not just with cool looking ads to perk kids' interest. The company is going to great lengths to actually put cigarettes into the hands of underage Nigerians.

Secret smoking parties are the latest in this tobacco company's desperate attempt to ensure that a new generation of Nigerians becomes hooked on their product. Here's how it works: invitation cards are secretly distributed; youth show up to the location of the party and are greeted by stern-looking security personnel who frisk them to ensure that no one has a camera; the kids then enter the hall to be welcomed by skimpily-clad girls who not only offer up cigarettes, but light them up for the kids right then and there. The next part really sets the stage for this movie-like scenario. While the party is going on -- often until 4 in the morning -- BATN officials are on the upper floors of the hall, cautiously observing their precious party.

No one ever asks the kids their age.

 

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