Showing posts with label Senator David Mark. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Senator David Mark. Show all posts
Monday, October 11, 2010
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Tobacco or health? It's decision time!
-AKINSHOLA OWOEYE
The Senate's failure to act on the National Tobacco Control Bill (NTCB) immediately after the public hearing of July 2009, has now made the bill a toy in the hand of a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Senator Kamarudeen Adedibu representing Oyo South Constituency, no doubt, did a hatchet man's job and got a pat on the back when he said the National Tobacco Control Bill which has passed through its second stage at the Senate is dead. This statement credited to Adedibu in national dailies is a slap on the face of his colleagues. After all, no one can deny the dangerous effects of tobacco use.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), tobacco currently kills 5.4 million people globally, and if left unchecked, this number will increase to 8 million - with devastating results for developing countries which will contribute about 70 percent of that figure. In the 20th century, the tobacco epidemic killed 100 million people, but the WHO says in this century, it could kill one billion people.
Meanwhile, statistics from Nigeria are staggering. A survey from the 2006 census, for instance, reveals that more than 13 million Nigerians smoke cigarettes, even as another one conducted in 11 Lagos State government-owned hospitals that same year revealed that at least two persons die every day from a tobacco-related disease, while over 9,000 cases of tobacco infections were recorded.
Also, every year, smoking among young people increases by at least 20 percent, a situation which makes Nigeria and indeed Africa the fastest-growing market for tobacco manufacturers The Federal Government, on September 24, 2001, at what it called the first official Investment Summit, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with BAT. Under the terms of agreement, the tobacco giant was to invest a whopping $150 million in the country. It was part of government's search for "foreign investors," and BAT pretended to be the saviour of the former President, President Olusegun Obasanjo, after his tireless search for foreign investment. If the Obasanjo regime did it ignorantly, the present administration cannot claim to be ignorant about the fact that tobacco kills.
There are several ways to view the Senate's stalling action on the bill. The tobacco industry has been given time to hook more young Nigerians on smoking, as every lost day sees another replacement smoker recruited - and we may not see the implication of this action until about 20 years' time. That said, delay on the important health bill will create avoidable problems for the future generation.
Indeed, in developed countries, tobacco companies and their owners are being isolated and choked with harsh laws. Now they invade our continent in the name of foreign investment. Already, tobacco use is responsible for one in 10 adult deaths, and by 2030, the figure is expected to be one in six, or 10 million deaths each year - more than any other cause including the projected death tolls from pneumonia, diarrheal diseases, tuberculosis, and the complications of childbirth for that year combined. If current trends persist, about 500 million people alive today will eventually be killed by tobacco, half of them in productive middle age, losing 20 to 25 years of life.
Tobacco contains nicotine, a substance that is recognised to be addictive by the WHO. Tobacco dependence is listed in the International Classification of Diseases, and fulfills the key criteria for addiction or dependence, including compulsive use. Cigarettes, unlike chewed tobacco, enable nicotine to reach the brain rapidly, within a few seconds of inhaling smoke.
However, the toll of death and disability from smoking in developing countries is yet to be felt. This is because the diseases caused by smoking can take several decades to develop. Even when smoking is very common in a population, the damage to health may not yet be visible. This point can be most clearly demonstrated by trends in lung cancer in the United States.
The Osun State government has signed a state bill to regulate the activities of tobacco companies and tobacco use in the state. While one expects other states to emulate them, the Senate should rise to protect public health by making a demand on its health committee to produce a report on the public hearing for the passage of the bill.
That way, the Senate will etch its name in gold under the leadership Senator David Mark for passing the National tobacco control bill.
Senator Kamarudeen Adedibu representing Oyo South Constituency, no doubt, did a hatchet man's job and got a pat on the back when he said the National Tobacco Control Bill which has passed through its second stage at the Senate is dead. This statement credited to Adedibu in national dailies is a slap on the face of his colleagues. After all, no one can deny the dangerous effects of tobacco use.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), tobacco currently kills 5.4 million people globally, and if left unchecked, this number will increase to 8 million - with devastating results for developing countries which will contribute about 70 percent of that figure. In the 20th century, the tobacco epidemic killed 100 million people, but the WHO says in this century, it could kill one billion people.
Meanwhile, statistics from Nigeria are staggering. A survey from the 2006 census, for instance, reveals that more than 13 million Nigerians smoke cigarettes, even as another one conducted in 11 Lagos State government-owned hospitals that same year revealed that at least two persons die every day from a tobacco-related disease, while over 9,000 cases of tobacco infections were recorded.
Also, every year, smoking among young people increases by at least 20 percent, a situation which makes Nigeria and indeed Africa the fastest-growing market for tobacco manufacturers The Federal Government, on September 24, 2001, at what it called the first official Investment Summit, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with BAT. Under the terms of agreement, the tobacco giant was to invest a whopping $150 million in the country. It was part of government's search for "foreign investors," and BAT pretended to be the saviour of the former President, President Olusegun Obasanjo, after his tireless search for foreign investment. If the Obasanjo regime did it ignorantly, the present administration cannot claim to be ignorant about the fact that tobacco kills.
There are several ways to view the Senate's stalling action on the bill. The tobacco industry has been given time to hook more young Nigerians on smoking, as every lost day sees another replacement smoker recruited - and we may not see the implication of this action until about 20 years' time. That said, delay on the important health bill will create avoidable problems for the future generation.
Indeed, in developed countries, tobacco companies and their owners are being isolated and choked with harsh laws. Now they invade our continent in the name of foreign investment. Already, tobacco use is responsible for one in 10 adult deaths, and by 2030, the figure is expected to be one in six, or 10 million deaths each year - more than any other cause including the projected death tolls from pneumonia, diarrheal diseases, tuberculosis, and the complications of childbirth for that year combined. If current trends persist, about 500 million people alive today will eventually be killed by tobacco, half of them in productive middle age, losing 20 to 25 years of life.
Tobacco contains nicotine, a substance that is recognised to be addictive by the WHO. Tobacco dependence is listed in the International Classification of Diseases, and fulfills the key criteria for addiction or dependence, including compulsive use. Cigarettes, unlike chewed tobacco, enable nicotine to reach the brain rapidly, within a few seconds of inhaling smoke.
However, the toll of death and disability from smoking in developing countries is yet to be felt. This is because the diseases caused by smoking can take several decades to develop. Even when smoking is very common in a population, the damage to health may not yet be visible. This point can be most clearly demonstrated by trends in lung cancer in the United States.
The Osun State government has signed a state bill to regulate the activities of tobacco companies and tobacco use in the state. While one expects other states to emulate them, the Senate should rise to protect public health by making a demand on its health committee to produce a report on the public hearing for the passage of the bill.
That way, the Senate will etch its name in gold under the leadership Senator David Mark for passing the National tobacco control bill.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Child Rights: Uwais’ Position on Tobacco Bill Faulted
Lawyer-Aides in the National Assembly (LANASS) has faulted the position of the wife of the former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Mrs. Maryam Uwais, to the effect that Chairman of Senate Committee on Health, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, violated the rights of the young persons by not allowing them to present their position at the just concluded Public Hearing on the Tobacco Control Bill.
Uwais had reportedly sent a protest letter to the Senate President, Senator David Mark, on the purported breach of the rights of some secondary school students who had stormed the National Assembly to witness the public hearing.
The body, in a statement issued yesterday in Abuja, said that while Obasanjo-Bello based her decision on the provisions of the 1999 Constitution, Uwais had anchored her protest on the provisions of Section 3 of the Child Rights Act.
The Section reads: “The provisions in Chapter 1V of the Constitution of the Federal republic of Nigeria, 1999, or any successive constitutional provisions relating to fundamental rights, shall apply as if those provisions are expressly stated in this Act.” LANASS said, “From the above provision, it is clear for all purposes and intent that the drafters of the Child Rights Act made it subject to the constitution and besides, it is elementary that the basic law above all laws in every nation is its constitution.”
The group further poked a hole in Uwais’ argument that Section 39 of the 1999 Constitution which provides for the Right of Freedom of Expression of every Nigerian, including the secondary school students.
According to the body, “True, not limited by age but this Section and others-37, 38, 40 and 41, in Chapter 4 are limited by the Derogation Clause as provided in Section 45 (1) of the same Constitution.
“It reads thus: Nothing in Sections 36, 38, 39, 40 and 41 of this Constitution shall invalidate any law that is reasonably justifiable in a democratic society-(a) in the interest of defense, public safety, public order, public morality and public health; or (b) for the purposes of protecting the rights and freedom of other persons.”
The body said, “Sequel to that is the provision of Section 45 (1) (b) that such limitations on the above-named sections can be for the purpose of protecting the rights and freedom of other persons, which, predictably and for the test of reasonableness, is one of the reasons adduced by the Senator (Obasanjo-Bello) for her action that the young persons be refrained from public discussions on smoking for protectionist reasons.”
LANASS said that it could not agree more because “these young people are not even supposed to be found in places where such topics are being discussed, ab-initio.”
It observed that Uwais in her position cited Section 19 of the Child Rights Act with the footnote-“Responsibilities of a Child and Parent” but that she omitted to mention Section 20 with the footnote-“Parent, etc., to provide guidance with respect to Child’s Responsibilities.”
Accusing Uwais of insincerity for citing only Section 19 without taking it together with Section 20, LANASS argued that it is only when “both sections are read together as a whole that sufficient legal analysis of that part of the Act might have been done.”
The body also tackled Uwais for berating Obasanjo-Bello for purportedly misconstruing the Senate Committee Public hearing as a court.
According to the body, “: But unknown to most Nigerians, the senator was right and Mrs. Uwais, ironically, was the erring party. Court, as defined by Section 2 of the Evidence Act, is not restricted to a structure or building where judgments are pronounced but includes judges, magistrates and all persons empowered to take evidence except arbitrators.
“Since National Assembly Committees are empowered, by law, to take evidence, they could constitute what is a court, following the provisions of the Evidence Act. “Therefore, the Senator (Obasanjo-Bello) was accurate in her analogy; even if it appears she had no knowledge of the legal truth of her statements.”
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