SOURCE: PUNCH, MONDAY 20TH, DECEMBER 2010
Showing posts with label Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello. Show all posts
Monday, December 20, 2010
GROUP SEEKS QUICK PASSAGE OF ANTI-TOBACCO BILL
The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria on Sunday stated that the passage of the National Tobacco Control Bill by the Senate was being stalled by the absence of the Chairman, Senate Committee on Health, Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello.
The bill which, according to the group, was sponsored by Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora from Lagos State, was scheduled to be presented for third reading last Thursday but was stood down due to the absence of Obasanjo-Bello.
The bill has been in the Senate since 2008 and is a comprehensive law that will regulate the manufacture, sales, distribution and marketing of tobacco products in Nigeria.
A statement by ERA/FoEN’s Director (Corporate Accountability and Administration), Mr. Akinbode Oluwafemi, said it was disturbing that the bill had suffered another setback. The group urged the Senate to give it proper treatment.
He said it was a comprehensive law that would save the lives of millions of Nigerians, if passed.
Oluwafemi said, “We find it disturbing that the National Tobacco Control Bill should suffer this setback again. We think the Senate should accord the bill the importance it deserves. It is a comprehensive law that is designed to save millions of lives now and in the future.
“The tobacco control bill is a bill for the next generation and it should be treated with the utmost importance that it deserves. We are sad that once again, we seem to have missed a very important opportunity.”
Oluwafemi, however, praised the efforts made on the bill so far adding. “We salute the courage of the members of Senate who have worked on the bill in the last two years, we commend the maturity displayed by members of the health committee and especially the Senate President, David Mark, for his support. We hope the Senate will continue deliberations on the bill at the earliest opportunity.”
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Nigeria Tobacco Control Bill, the world is watching
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.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
ERA petitions Senate President on Tobacco Bill
By Omafume Amurun
The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has implored Senate President, David Mark to follow through his remarks last year on the readiness of the Senate to speedily pass the National Tobacco Control Bill (NTCB) into law, cautioning that further delay on the draft legislation will cost the nation more lives.
ERA/FoEN, in a petition to the Senate President made available to the Niger Delta Standard today 11th October, 2010 and signed by its Executive Director, Pastor Nnimmo Bassey, the group urged the Nigerian government to sanction the British American Tobacco Nigeria (BATN) for targeting young Nigerians in a bid to recruit them as replacement smokers through glamorization of smoking and ‘secret smoking parties’ held in Abuja, Lagos and other parts of the country.
According to the environmental justice group, the non passage of the Bill was responsible for the increased rate of smoking among young people in Nigeria as reflected in the recently released Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) and the mammoth sum that most states are now paying for healthcare of victims of tobacco-related illnesses.
The National Tobacco Control Bill, sponsored by Senator Olorunimbe Mamora went for Public Hearing July 2009 and received overwhelming support from members of the house but the report of that Hearing was yet to be returned to the Senate plenary for eventual passage into a law.
“The result of the Global Youth Tobacco Survey conducted in some states recently which revealed that many more school children fantasize smoking is indeed telling of what the tobacco companies have done to the psyche of our youth. In some areas in Adamawa State the youth smoking rate was put to 33.9 percent, a very disturbing trend,” said ERA/FoEN Executive Director, Pastor Bassey.
According to Pastor Bassey, “It is saddening that even after the complimentary comments of the Senate President, who declared last year that action will be taken on the Bill within two weeks of the Public Hearing, nothing has happened even after a year.
ERA ‘s position is further reinforced by the fact that as Party to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the Nigerian government owes its citizens an obligation to domesticate the treaty.”
‘While we acknowledge the commitment of the Senate to the delivery of good governance and promotion of public health, your intervention and further actions to save the bill will be appreciated. It is now time to act to save the lives of our youth that now stand threatened by the activities of BATN and other tobacco merchants,” Pastor Bassey noted.
Among others recommendations, ERA is praying the Senate to, as a matter of national urgency commence debate on the report of the Public Hearing and pass the Bill into law
SOURCE
ERA/FoEN, in a petition to the Senate President made available to the Niger Delta Standard today 11th October, 2010 and signed by its Executive Director, Pastor Nnimmo Bassey, the group urged the Nigerian government to sanction the British American Tobacco Nigeria (BATN) for targeting young Nigerians in a bid to recruit them as replacement smokers through glamorization of smoking and ‘secret smoking parties’ held in Abuja, Lagos and other parts of the country.
According to the environmental justice group, the non passage of the Bill was responsible for the increased rate of smoking among young people in Nigeria as reflected in the recently released Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) and the mammoth sum that most states are now paying for healthcare of victims of tobacco-related illnesses.
The National Tobacco Control Bill, sponsored by Senator Olorunimbe Mamora went for Public Hearing July 2009 and received overwhelming support from members of the house but the report of that Hearing was yet to be returned to the Senate plenary for eventual passage into a law.
“The result of the Global Youth Tobacco Survey conducted in some states recently which revealed that many more school children fantasize smoking is indeed telling of what the tobacco companies have done to the psyche of our youth. In some areas in Adamawa State the youth smoking rate was put to 33.9 percent, a very disturbing trend,” said ERA/FoEN Executive Director, Pastor Bassey.
According to Pastor Bassey, “It is saddening that even after the complimentary comments of the Senate President, who declared last year that action will be taken on the Bill within two weeks of the Public Hearing, nothing has happened even after a year.
ERA ‘s position is further reinforced by the fact that as Party to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the Nigerian government owes its citizens an obligation to domesticate the treaty.”
‘While we acknowledge the commitment of the Senate to the delivery of good governance and promotion of public health, your intervention and further actions to save the bill will be appreciated. It is now time to act to save the lives of our youth that now stand threatened by the activities of BATN and other tobacco merchants,” Pastor Bassey noted.
Among others recommendations, ERA is praying the Senate to, as a matter of national urgency commence debate on the report of the Public Hearing and pass the Bill into law
SOURCE
Monday, October 11, 2010
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
ERA seeks passage of tobacco bill
-BY MICHAEL ORIE
THE Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) yesterday called on the National Assembly to pass into law the National Tobacco Control Bill, saying its delay has further promoted the activity of tobacco industries in the country.
The call was made in the wake of the 10th International Week of the Resistance Against Tobacco Transnational, to expose the ever-evolving tactics of the tobacco industry to undermine public health through its lethal products.
According to the Director, Accountability Campaigns and Administration, Environmental Rights Action, Oluwafemi Akinbode, the bill had been foot-dragging for the past two years without a particular reason for the delay.
“We have an increase worries on why the bill has not been passed, as there is a clear indication the delay might have a political undertone,” he said.
The one-week event that started yesterday is aimed at building momentum in the run-up to the World Health Organisation (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) meetings in Uruguay in November this year for a unified international action to prevent the tobacco industry from derailing the FCTC’s life-saving measures.
Akinbode, to prove the menace the delay has caused, said “in solidarity with our allies and NGOs across the globe taking part in several actions to expose some of the tobacco industry tactics to undermine the FCTC, ERA/FoEN has released a report from tobacco industry watchdog – Corporate Accountability International – documenting persistent and ongoing efforts to obstruct the FCTC on the African continent and around the world. The report points to tobacco industry interference as the single greatest obstacle to the treaty realising its full potential.”
He added that the report is intended to keep governments alert and make them anticipate and thwart attempts by the vested commercial interests of the tobacco industry to undermine the implementation of tobacco control policies.
According to Akinbode, Nigeria which is among the first few countries that signed the FCTC in 2004 and ratified it in 2005 is still foot-dragging in totally domesticating the treaty through the National Tobacco Control Bill which was hailed by local and international groups at the public hearing organised by the Senate Committee on Health in July 2009 as a step to curbing “the gale of deaths which tobacco has wrought on this nation.”
“British America Tobacco (BAT) which controls over 80 per cent of the Nigerian cigarette market has continued to undermine the treaty by deliberate misinformation and illicit actions targeted at the youth. For instance, in the last two months the company has held several secret smoking parties targeted at new smokers. Two of such parties were held in Ajegunle and Victoria Island, both in Lagos, and the company has announced plans to seize the opportunity of the upcoming yuletide to organise more.”
According to ERA, on June 15 this year the company had announced a position for Regulatory Affairs and External Communications Executive Staff to be based in Lagos. The job announcement which described a potential candidate as one who can “establish BAT as a trusted partner of regulators and a leading authority on tobacco control issues across Nigeria,” was said to have outlined that the company was looking for someone “to provide advocacy that ensure(s) that engagement is relevant to tobacco control thinking, both current and future in order to maximise transaction with stakeholders and demonstrate deep knowledge of tobacco control in the real world.”
SOURCE
THE Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) yesterday called on the National Assembly to pass into law the National Tobacco Control Bill, saying its delay has further promoted the activity of tobacco industries in the country.
The call was made in the wake of the 10th International Week of the Resistance Against Tobacco Transnational, to expose the ever-evolving tactics of the tobacco industry to undermine public health through its lethal products.
According to the Director, Accountability Campaigns and Administration, Environmental Rights Action, Oluwafemi Akinbode, the bill had been foot-dragging for the past two years without a particular reason for the delay.
“We have an increase worries on why the bill has not been passed, as there is a clear indication the delay might have a political undertone,” he said.
The one-week event that started yesterday is aimed at building momentum in the run-up to the World Health Organisation (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) meetings in Uruguay in November this year for a unified international action to prevent the tobacco industry from derailing the FCTC’s life-saving measures.
Akinbode, to prove the menace the delay has caused, said “in solidarity with our allies and NGOs across the globe taking part in several actions to expose some of the tobacco industry tactics to undermine the FCTC, ERA/FoEN has released a report from tobacco industry watchdog – Corporate Accountability International – documenting persistent and ongoing efforts to obstruct the FCTC on the African continent and around the world. The report points to tobacco industry interference as the single greatest obstacle to the treaty realising its full potential.”
He added that the report is intended to keep governments alert and make them anticipate and thwart attempts by the vested commercial interests of the tobacco industry to undermine the implementation of tobacco control policies.
According to Akinbode, Nigeria which is among the first few countries that signed the FCTC in 2004 and ratified it in 2005 is still foot-dragging in totally domesticating the treaty through the National Tobacco Control Bill which was hailed by local and international groups at the public hearing organised by the Senate Committee on Health in July 2009 as a step to curbing “the gale of deaths which tobacco has wrought on this nation.”
“British America Tobacco (BAT) which controls over 80 per cent of the Nigerian cigarette market has continued to undermine the treaty by deliberate misinformation and illicit actions targeted at the youth. For instance, in the last two months the company has held several secret smoking parties targeted at new smokers. Two of such parties were held in Ajegunle and Victoria Island, both in Lagos, and the company has announced plans to seize the opportunity of the upcoming yuletide to organise more.”
According to ERA, on June 15 this year the company had announced a position for Regulatory Affairs and External Communications Executive Staff to be based in Lagos. The job announcement which described a potential candidate as one who can “establish BAT as a trusted partner of regulators and a leading authority on tobacco control issues across Nigeria,” was said to have outlined that the company was looking for someone “to provide advocacy that ensure(s) that engagement is relevant to tobacco control thinking, both current and future in order to maximise transaction with stakeholders and demonstrate deep knowledge of tobacco control in the real world.”
SOURCE
Friday, September 17, 2010
More Questions over National Tobacco Control Bill
It was tagged "Bursting with Flavour". And it held on the soils of Ajegunle, the crowded enclave in Lagos, which its inhabitants love to describe as a jungle.
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The event is the latest promotional campaign by the British American Tobacco Nigeria (BATN). It has made the tobacco control community in Nigeria call for the passage of the National Tobacco Control Bill sponsored by Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora.
Leading environmental group in Nigeria, the Environmental Rights action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) said the continued promotion and advertising of tobacco products to youths by the BATN runs against international protocols and standards governing the manufacture and sale of tobacco products worldwide.
The group said the tobacco giant on August 7, at the Ajeromi Ifelodun Area of Lagos, attracted a large number of young people and local music artists resident in Ajegunle and gave out free samples of Pall Mall cigarettes while branded items like T-shirts were handed out.
According to the Director Corporate Accountability, Campaign & Administration of ERA/FoEN, Akinbode Oluwafemi, the latest offering from the giant tobacco company has again raised the need for a comprehensive regulation of standards and practice of tobacco business in Nigeria.
"The position of ERA/FoEN has always been that we cannot operate the tobacco business in Nigeria outside of the international laws and standards which has abolished all forms of promotion and marketing of tobacco products."
One of such standard regulations is the proposed National Tobacco Control Bill currently before the National Assembly. It has been over a year now that the Sen Mamora’s comprehensive tobacco bill has undergone a public hearing conducted by the Senate Committee on Health led by Senator Iyabo Obasanjo Bello.
But curiously, nothing has been heard about the bill since then. The recommendations made at the public hearing which should have formed the basis of the committee report on the final draft of the bill have not been released.
Nigeria’s tobacco control community has attributed the delay to underhand practices by the tobacco industry to undermine the intent of the bill. This position, according to them, was given credence when in April this year, Sen. Kamarudeen Adedibu representing the Oyo South constituency declared at a function organised by the BATN that the tobacco bill was dead.
However, Mamora debunked any allegations that the Senate might have been compromised. "You must understand why the legislative process could be slow. One you might have other bills that compete with it in the order of priority. Again the tobacco bill is quite comprehensive and voluminous unlike other bills and if you want to do a thorough job, you will need some time. We want to be fair to all concerned."
But the delay has had its consequences. The international community, which has placed so much hope on Nigeria leading Africa in implementing a comprehensive law, has had to look for another role model in Africa in the mould of Kenya and Mauritius, which have passed a similar law and vigorously pursuing its implementation.
"Nigeria led other African countries to negotiate the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in Geneva. I can confirm that to you. After signing and ratifying the treaty, we are supposed to domesticate it by a national law which is what the tobacco bill intends to do. But by our failure to pass the bill and serve as a model to other African countries we risk a tobacco epidemic that may consume the next generation if current statistics is taken into consideration," Oluwafemi said.
He also blamed the continued promotion of tobacco products by BATN on the non-passage of the bill "If the bill is not passed immediately, we will continue to see such instances where the tobacco industry will continue to illegally recruit our youths through its secret smoking parties. This has been going on since 2008 and they have organised the same criminal show all over the country.
"One needs to ask why choose Ajegunle? Why choose Terry G? It is because they can get poor impressionable youths in Ajegunle and because the sorts of kids who love Terry G also reside in Ajegunle. So, it is a well thought out and well implemented campaign strategy against the youth and the future of this country. The tobacco bill can put a stop to this."
Will the legislature find the courage to pass this much awaited bill before the end of this legislative session? If the bill is passed against all expectations and odds, the Senate would have given Nigerians one of the best gifts of this democracy, but if it does not, then one may expect very little from future public health policy promises.
The bill, as proposed by Mamora, will help reduce the burden of the tobacco epidemic that is expected to arise from uncoordinated and unrestricted business environment which tobacco giants currently operate in.
The bill prohibits the sale of single stick cigarettes; calls for a periodic increase in taxation in order to discourage access to the deadly product; it provides for a ban on smoking in all designated public places and provides for a framework to seek legal redress for anyone who got sick from smoking.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), tobacco currently kills 5.4 million people annually. A 2006 survey from Lagos State Ministry of Health also reveals that at least two persons die every day from a tobacco-related disease in the state. This was the basis for a legal suit instituted by the state against major tobacco companies in Nigeria.
Currently more than 10 states have signed up to similar suits against tobacco companies and the Federal Government in November 2007 instituted a similar suit at the Abuja Federal High Court.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Friday, July 9, 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.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Girls smoke more than boys in Nigeria –WHO
By SEMIU OKANLAWON
The 2010 World No Tobacco Day (which is today) focuses on the need to ban all forms of promotion of tobacco even with a new direction to fight the recruitment of the womenfolk into smoking, writes SEMIU OKANLAWON
It may sound odd, but the World Health Organisation says more girls than boys smoke tobacco; giving new reasons why the anti-tobacco crusade must now address the womenfolk.
When on Friday, WHO called for a special protection of women and girls against tobacco, it was not as if the organisation had assumed the other members of the society needed not to be shielded from the harmful effects of what is perceived globally to be an addictive consumption.
It was because global researches have indicated a growing, worrisome trend in the habit of women and girls who take tobacco as a thing of glamour and status. WHO’s new direction of campaign is to press home the focus of this year’s World Tobacco Day.
WHO’s Director-General, Dr. Margaret Chan, said, “The trends in some countries are extremely worrisome,” adding, “Tobacco use is neither liberating nor glamorous. It is addictive and deadly.”
This 2010 campaign theme, “Gender and tobacco with an emphasis on marketing to women, focuses on the harmful effects of tobacco marketing towards women and girls. It also highlights the need for governments to ban all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship and to eliminate tobacco smoke in all public and work places as provided in the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control,” according to the global health body.
Nigeria, where the campaign against smoking has been gaining ground through the efforts of the Environmental Rights Action, is ranked among countries which WHO Director-General said the trend is pretty worrisome.
Smoking may be one habit that is generally perceived to be rife among males, but a recent survey, according to WHO, shows that there is a growing rate of tobacco use amongst girls and women. Women and girls are said to represent 20 per cent global smoking population.
“In half of the 151 countries recently surveyed for trends in tobacco use among young people, approximately as many girls uses tobacco as boys. More girls use tobacco than boys in some of the countries, including Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Cook Islands, Croatia, Czech Republic, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria and Uruguay.
“Women are a major target for the tobacco industry in its effort to recruit new users to replace those who will quit or die prematurely from tobacco-related diseases. The leading preventable cause of death, tobacco use kills more than five million people every year, about 1.5 million of whom are women,” says WHO on Friday.
And what is the nexus between tobacco and women? Or better still; what is the attraction? After strategic manners in which the anti-smoking campaigners across the world had tackled the recruitment of youths into smoking by tobacco manufacturers and marketers, there is said to be a new path manufacturers and marketers are following to force smoke down the throats of women. By linking smoking with beauty, young girls are easily fascinated and are consequently recruited into the habit.
Analysts are of the view that the same method employed in using the media to present slim girls as paragon of African beauty is being promoted to make young girls believe that their beauty is incomplete without tobacco addiction.
But it is not only those who engage in the practical habit of direct smoking that are considered to be smokers. Passive smokers abount through their inhaling of smokes in public places.
The inclusion of Nigeria amongst countries considered to be having a disturbing rate of smoking girls further reinforces the points being raised by Nigerian crusaders that the government needs to act fast before tobacco-related diseases add to its alleged unenviable record in health management.
Programme Manager of the Environmental Rights in Nigeria, an affiliate of the Friends of the Earth, Mr. Akinbode Oluwafemi, said the focus on the need to save women and girls from smoking, which is the theme of this year’s tobacco day, should compel some persons in high places to act fast.
“It will interest you that the chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, is a woman. And we believe that where the interests of women are concerned, a woman in the status of the senator should use her position to ensure the welfare of her fellow womenfolk,” say Oluwafemi.
His call is on the strength of a bill which was said to have been presented to the Senate by a member, Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora which, according to him, is yet to be passed into law.
Among other things, the bill seeks to ban smoking in public and end all forms of promotion of the product in the country.
Mamora, who spoke with our correspondent on Sunday, said there had been deliberate moves to scuttle the bill at the National Assembly, adding that some of his colleagues who swore to defend the wellbeing of Nigerians were engaging in acts that are inconsistent with their oath of office.
Mamora said, “No amount of propaganda; no amount of purported job creation by the British American Tobacco can justify the number of lives being destroyed through the use of tobacco. This is because certain incontrovertible evidence have been established linking tobacco use to various diseases.”
In a separate statement on the 2010 World Tobacco Day, Oluwafemi called for the passing into law of the bill as a sign of government’s readiness to recognise the global concern for the health of its citizenry.
He stated, “It is a fact that dangers are associated with smoking. The World Health Organisation estimated that 5.4 million people die every year due to tobacco-related diseases, with majority of these deaths happening in developing countries.
“Tobacco is the only consumer product that is guaranteed to kill half its consumers if used according to manufacturers’ intention. It contains more than 4,000 dangerous chemicals harmful to the body.
“It is also a fact that stringent measures aimed at reducing smoking in Europe and America have driven the tobacco industry to developing countries like Nigeria, where the industry continues to flout regulations, marketing to young and impressionable youths, and hooking them on smoking.”
Indeed, another recent survey, according to Oluwafemi, also shows that two persons die each day in Lagos hospitals as a result of tobacco-related ailments.
With the theme of this year’s event, many expect that the focus will now shift to demystifying those messages being sold to girls which make them embrace smoking as a way of upping their beauty profiles.
Perhaps, that will compel manufacturers and marketers to also review strategies. But then, the health of the citizenry is at the centre of it all.
The 2010 World No Tobacco Day (which is today) focuses on the need to ban all forms of promotion of tobacco even with a new direction to fight the recruitment of the womenfolk into smoking, writes SEMIU OKANLAWONIt may sound odd, but the World Health Organisation says more girls than boys smoke tobacco; giving new reasons why the anti-tobacco crusade must now address the womenfolk.
When on Friday, WHO called for a special protection of women and girls against tobacco, it was not as if the organisation had assumed the other members of the society needed not to be shielded from the harmful effects of what is perceived globally to be an addictive consumption.
It was because global researches have indicated a growing, worrisome trend in the habit of women and girls who take tobacco as a thing of glamour and status. WHO’s new direction of campaign is to press home the focus of this year’s World Tobacco Day.
WHO’s Director-General, Dr. Margaret Chan, said, “The trends in some countries are extremely worrisome,” adding, “Tobacco use is neither liberating nor glamorous. It is addictive and deadly.”
This 2010 campaign theme, “Gender and tobacco with an emphasis on marketing to women, focuses on the harmful effects of tobacco marketing towards women and girls. It also highlights the need for governments to ban all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship and to eliminate tobacco smoke in all public and work places as provided in the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control,” according to the global health body.
Nigeria, where the campaign against smoking has been gaining ground through the efforts of the Environmental Rights Action, is ranked among countries which WHO Director-General said the trend is pretty worrisome.
Smoking may be one habit that is generally perceived to be rife among males, but a recent survey, according to WHO, shows that there is a growing rate of tobacco use amongst girls and women. Women and girls are said to represent 20 per cent global smoking population.
“In half of the 151 countries recently surveyed for trends in tobacco use among young people, approximately as many girls uses tobacco as boys. More girls use tobacco than boys in some of the countries, including Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Cook Islands, Croatia, Czech Republic, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria and Uruguay.
“Women are a major target for the tobacco industry in its effort to recruit new users to replace those who will quit or die prematurely from tobacco-related diseases. The leading preventable cause of death, tobacco use kills more than five million people every year, about 1.5 million of whom are women,” says WHO on Friday.
And what is the nexus between tobacco and women? Or better still; what is the attraction? After strategic manners in which the anti-smoking campaigners across the world had tackled the recruitment of youths into smoking by tobacco manufacturers and marketers, there is said to be a new path manufacturers and marketers are following to force smoke down the throats of women. By linking smoking with beauty, young girls are easily fascinated and are consequently recruited into the habit.
Analysts are of the view that the same method employed in using the media to present slim girls as paragon of African beauty is being promoted to make young girls believe that their beauty is incomplete without tobacco addiction.
But it is not only those who engage in the practical habit of direct smoking that are considered to be smokers. Passive smokers abount through their inhaling of smokes in public places.
The inclusion of Nigeria amongst countries considered to be having a disturbing rate of smoking girls further reinforces the points being raised by Nigerian crusaders that the government needs to act fast before tobacco-related diseases add to its alleged unenviable record in health management.
Programme Manager of the Environmental Rights in Nigeria, an affiliate of the Friends of the Earth, Mr. Akinbode Oluwafemi, said the focus on the need to save women and girls from smoking, which is the theme of this year’s tobacco day, should compel some persons in high places to act fast.
“It will interest you that the chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, is a woman. And we believe that where the interests of women are concerned, a woman in the status of the senator should use her position to ensure the welfare of her fellow womenfolk,” say Oluwafemi.
His call is on the strength of a bill which was said to have been presented to the Senate by a member, Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora which, according to him, is yet to be passed into law.
Among other things, the bill seeks to ban smoking in public and end all forms of promotion of the product in the country.
Mamora, who spoke with our correspondent on Sunday, said there had been deliberate moves to scuttle the bill at the National Assembly, adding that some of his colleagues who swore to defend the wellbeing of Nigerians were engaging in acts that are inconsistent with their oath of office.
Mamora said, “No amount of propaganda; no amount of purported job creation by the British American Tobacco can justify the number of lives being destroyed through the use of tobacco. This is because certain incontrovertible evidence have been established linking tobacco use to various diseases.”
In a separate statement on the 2010 World Tobacco Day, Oluwafemi called for the passing into law of the bill as a sign of government’s readiness to recognise the global concern for the health of its citizenry.
He stated, “It is a fact that dangers are associated with smoking. The World Health Organisation estimated that 5.4 million people die every year due to tobacco-related diseases, with majority of these deaths happening in developing countries.
“Tobacco is the only consumer product that is guaranteed to kill half its consumers if used according to manufacturers’ intention. It contains more than 4,000 dangerous chemicals harmful to the body.
“It is also a fact that stringent measures aimed at reducing smoking in Europe and America have driven the tobacco industry to developing countries like Nigeria, where the industry continues to flout regulations, marketing to young and impressionable youths, and hooking them on smoking.”
Indeed, another recent survey, according to Oluwafemi, also shows that two persons die each day in Lagos hospitals as a result of tobacco-related ailments.
With the theme of this year’s event, many expect that the focus will now shift to demystifying those messages being sold to girls which make them embrace smoking as a way of upping their beauty profiles.
Perhaps, that will compel manufacturers and marketers to also review strategies. But then, the health of the citizenry is at the centre of it all.
SOURCE
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Study shows cigarette butts can be useful
By SEMIU OKANLAWON
Scientists in China have discovered good uses for cigarette butts reducing what could be the destructive tendencies of smoking on the environment, writes SEMIU OKANLAWON
On a daily basis, how many butts of cigarette can you count as you go about the streets? Or if you are a smoker, how many of such butts do you contribute to the littering of the environment on a daily basis? And if you happen to fling such items into a river, do you know how much damage you cause the natural habitat of fishes? But rather than allow such negative effects of those items, scientists are saying that cigarette butts, as waste elements as they appear, have capacities for some good uses. Welcome to the laboratory of some Chinese scholars who have discovered the good uses to which cigarette butts can be put.
“Chemical extracts from cigarette butts – so toxic they kill fish – can be used to protect steel pipes from rusting, a study in China has found,” reports Reuters.
In a paper said to have been published in the American Chemical Society’s bi-weekly journal, Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, the scientists in China said they found nine chemicals “after immersing cigarette butts in water.”
In trying to detect the good uses of the chemicals, the scientists were reported to have applied the extracts to a type of steel used in oil pipes, called N80, finding out after the experiment that they protected the steel from rusting.
The scientists wrote in their report, “The metal surface can be protected and the iron atom’s further dissolution can be prevented.”
In their report, it was observed that the chemicals, including nicotine, appear to be responsible for the anti-corrosion effect.
The research, which was reportedly funded by China’s state oil firm, China National Petroleum Corporation, was led by Jun Zhao at Xi‘an Jiaotong University’s School of Energy and Power Engineering. Of course, the report readily becomes a source of interests to environmental campaigners in other parts of the world, Nigeria most especially.
Corrosion of steel pipes used by the oil industry costs oil producers millions of dollars annually to repair or replace.
Of course, in a country like Nigeria with the combined environmental problems of smoking and oil spillage in the oil-bearing communities in the Niger Delta, the study becomes very germane.
Interestingly, the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria had been at the vanguard of the battles in the two areas. While the organisation, since its establishment, has been noted for its crusade against environmental degradation caused substantially by oil exploration activities in the Niger Delta, it has added to its body of campaigns, the battle to regulate smoking, especially in public places. Over the years, it has raised awareness on the dangers posed to human health by cigarette.
The group has worked with the World Health Organisation to promote its anti-smoking campaigns. Article 11 of WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control demands each party to the protocol to adopt and implement, within three years after entry into force of the FCTC for that party, adequate measures to ensure that tobacco product packaging and labelling carry large, rotating health warnings and do not promote tobacco products by false, misleading or deceptive means.
It also requires that tobacco product packaging and labelling contain information on relevant constituents and emissions of tobacco products as defined by national authorities.
Definitely, parts of the constituents in question are those the Chinese scientists have discovered to be of good use.
As part of ERA’s battle in Nigeria, The National Tobacco Control Bill was sponsored by Deputy Minority Leader, Senator Olorunimbe Mamora. The bill scaled the second reading in February 2009.
A public hearing on the bill was also held on July 20 and 21 last year by the Senate Committee on Health, chaired by Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello.
On a global scale, the researchers estimated that 4.5 trillion cigarette butts find their way into the environment each year. “Apart from being an eyesore, they contain toxins that can kill fish,” they stated.
Kill fish? This then becomes more worrisome for those who had engaged in environmental campaigns for the Niger Delta. Oil exploration constitutes its major headache for the people of the area. At the moment, issue of compensation by oil majors for degradations caused by spills is a vexed one. And with the toxic nature of butts, there is the additional burden of coping with the smoking habits of Niger Deltans, who may have been unwittingly contributing to their woes by killing their fishing businesses through toxic substances. What the scientists are preaching is an encouragement of recycling, which, according to them, could bring an end to indiscriminate disposal of cigarette wastes.
“Recycling could solve those problems, but finding practical uses for cigarette butts has been difficult,” the researchers wrote.
China is said to have about 300 million smokers. Reportedly the world’s largest smoking nation consuming a third of the world’s cigarettes, nearly 60 per cent of men in China smoke, “puffing an average of 15 cigarettes per day.”
Even if the smoking population in Nigeria does not present that kind of threat to fishing, the discovery that substances cigarette butts contain can help a great deal in tackling corrosion is a welcome relief.
“It is ERA’s conviction that tobacco is harmful in all ramification – from planting where farmers are exposed to hazardous chemicals, and deforestation since wood will be cut down for tobacco leaf curing, to actual smoking by an individual or second-hand smoke by the unintended consumer.
“Most times, cigarette is discarded just anywhere by smokers and of course can find its way into open drains etc and ultimately in the lagoon or rivers where we get our artisanal fish. If the scientists confirmed the danger of fish consuming the stub, then it adds to the overall dangers posed by cigarettes.”
With the incessant pipeline bursts, leading to oil spillage in oil communities and consequently aggravating tension, the new discovery might interest oil majors in their efforts to curb pipeline damages which are caused not only by vandalisation by aggrieved militants, but also by corrosion due to long years of usage.
According to ERA’s Media Officer, Mr. Phillip Jakpor, a survey carried out by the Federal Ministry of Health in 1990-91 showed that 4.14 million (representing 10 per cent) Nigerians over the age of 15 years smoked and that 1.26 million were heavy smokers. Heavy smokers, by the ministry’s definition, are those who consume more than 10 cigarettes per day.
By the end of 2001 when the British American Tobacco entered the Nigerian market, the smoking rate for youths of the 13–15 age bracket had increased to 18.1 per cent.
“A more recent survey conducted in 2006 showed that 13 million out of Nigeria’s estimated 140 million people smoke cigarettes. That survey also revealed that smoking among the youth is on a 20 per cent annual increase,” Jakpor stated.
ERA has accused the Nigeria government of failing to follow up after signing the FCTC in 2004 and ratifying it in 2005.
Scientists in China have discovered good uses for cigarette butts reducing what could be the destructive tendencies of smoking on the environment, writes SEMIU OKANLAWON On a daily basis, how many butts of cigarette can you count as you go about the streets? Or if you are a smoker, how many of such butts do you contribute to the littering of the environment on a daily basis? And if you happen to fling such items into a river, do you know how much damage you cause the natural habitat of fishes? But rather than allow such negative effects of those items, scientists are saying that cigarette butts, as waste elements as they appear, have capacities for some good uses. Welcome to the laboratory of some Chinese scholars who have discovered the good uses to which cigarette butts can be put.
“Chemical extracts from cigarette butts – so toxic they kill fish – can be used to protect steel pipes from rusting, a study in China has found,” reports Reuters.
In a paper said to have been published in the American Chemical Society’s bi-weekly journal, Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, the scientists in China said they found nine chemicals “after immersing cigarette butts in water.”
In trying to detect the good uses of the chemicals, the scientists were reported to have applied the extracts to a type of steel used in oil pipes, called N80, finding out after the experiment that they protected the steel from rusting.
The scientists wrote in their report, “The metal surface can be protected and the iron atom’s further dissolution can be prevented.”
In their report, it was observed that the chemicals, including nicotine, appear to be responsible for the anti-corrosion effect.
The research, which was reportedly funded by China’s state oil firm, China National Petroleum Corporation, was led by Jun Zhao at Xi‘an Jiaotong University’s School of Energy and Power Engineering. Of course, the report readily becomes a source of interests to environmental campaigners in other parts of the world, Nigeria most especially.
Corrosion of steel pipes used by the oil industry costs oil producers millions of dollars annually to repair or replace.
Of course, in a country like Nigeria with the combined environmental problems of smoking and oil spillage in the oil-bearing communities in the Niger Delta, the study becomes very germane.
Interestingly, the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria had been at the vanguard of the battles in the two areas. While the organisation, since its establishment, has been noted for its crusade against environmental degradation caused substantially by oil exploration activities in the Niger Delta, it has added to its body of campaigns, the battle to regulate smoking, especially in public places. Over the years, it has raised awareness on the dangers posed to human health by cigarette.
The group has worked with the World Health Organisation to promote its anti-smoking campaigns. Article 11 of WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control demands each party to the protocol to adopt and implement, within three years after entry into force of the FCTC for that party, adequate measures to ensure that tobacco product packaging and labelling carry large, rotating health warnings and do not promote tobacco products by false, misleading or deceptive means.
It also requires that tobacco product packaging and labelling contain information on relevant constituents and emissions of tobacco products as defined by national authorities.
Definitely, parts of the constituents in question are those the Chinese scientists have discovered to be of good use.
As part of ERA’s battle in Nigeria, The National Tobacco Control Bill was sponsored by Deputy Minority Leader, Senator Olorunimbe Mamora. The bill scaled the second reading in February 2009.
A public hearing on the bill was also held on July 20 and 21 last year by the Senate Committee on Health, chaired by Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello.
On a global scale, the researchers estimated that 4.5 trillion cigarette butts find their way into the environment each year. “Apart from being an eyesore, they contain toxins that can kill fish,” they stated.
Kill fish? This then becomes more worrisome for those who had engaged in environmental campaigns for the Niger Delta. Oil exploration constitutes its major headache for the people of the area. At the moment, issue of compensation by oil majors for degradations caused by spills is a vexed one. And with the toxic nature of butts, there is the additional burden of coping with the smoking habits of Niger Deltans, who may have been unwittingly contributing to their woes by killing their fishing businesses through toxic substances. What the scientists are preaching is an encouragement of recycling, which, according to them, could bring an end to indiscriminate disposal of cigarette wastes.
“Recycling could solve those problems, but finding practical uses for cigarette butts has been difficult,” the researchers wrote.
China is said to have about 300 million smokers. Reportedly the world’s largest smoking nation consuming a third of the world’s cigarettes, nearly 60 per cent of men in China smoke, “puffing an average of 15 cigarettes per day.”
Even if the smoking population in Nigeria does not present that kind of threat to fishing, the discovery that substances cigarette butts contain can help a great deal in tackling corrosion is a welcome relief.
“It is ERA’s conviction that tobacco is harmful in all ramification – from planting where farmers are exposed to hazardous chemicals, and deforestation since wood will be cut down for tobacco leaf curing, to actual smoking by an individual or second-hand smoke by the unintended consumer.
“Most times, cigarette is discarded just anywhere by smokers and of course can find its way into open drains etc and ultimately in the lagoon or rivers where we get our artisanal fish. If the scientists confirmed the danger of fish consuming the stub, then it adds to the overall dangers posed by cigarettes.”
With the incessant pipeline bursts, leading to oil spillage in oil communities and consequently aggravating tension, the new discovery might interest oil majors in their efforts to curb pipeline damages which are caused not only by vandalisation by aggrieved militants, but also by corrosion due to long years of usage.
According to ERA’s Media Officer, Mr. Phillip Jakpor, a survey carried out by the Federal Ministry of Health in 1990-91 showed that 4.14 million (representing 10 per cent) Nigerians over the age of 15 years smoked and that 1.26 million were heavy smokers. Heavy smokers, by the ministry’s definition, are those who consume more than 10 cigarettes per day.
By the end of 2001 when the British American Tobacco entered the Nigerian market, the smoking rate for youths of the 13–15 age bracket had increased to 18.1 per cent.
“A more recent survey conducted in 2006 showed that 13 million out of Nigeria’s estimated 140 million people smoke cigarettes. That survey also revealed that smoking among the youth is on a 20 per cent annual increase,” Jakpor stated.
ERA has accused the Nigeria government of failing to follow up after signing the FCTC in 2004 and ratifying it in 2005.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Pass tobacco control bill
I write to call on the Senate Committee on Health led by Senator Iyabo Obasanjo -Bello and the leadership of the National Assembly to move immediately to pass the National Tobacco Control Bill 2009, sponsored by Senator Olorunnibe Mamoora. The bill, which enjoyed the support of many senators is yet to be returned to the Senate Plenary after a public hearing was conducted in July 2009.
It is a fact that there are dangers associated with smoking. The World Health organisation estimated that 5.4 million people die every year due to a tobacco related diseases. The majority of these deaths occurred in developing countries. Tobacco is the only consumer product that is guaranteed to kill half of its consumers if used according to manufacturers‘ intention. It contains more than 4,000 dangerous chemicals harmful to the body.
It is also a fact that stringent measures aimed at reducing smoking in Europe and America have driven the tobacco industry to developing countries like Nigeria.
Recent surveys suggested that more young people are becoming smokers every- day, while a survey conducted in Lagos hospitals reveals that two persons die each day from a tobacco related disease. Governments all over the world are putting measures in place to combat the epidemic through enactment of bills like the one Mamoora has proposed.
It will be to the credit of this National Assembly to expedite action on the bill and pass it before the expiration of this democratic dispensation. Nigeria played a major part in shaping global health policies especially in tobacco control. The world is watching and waiting. The National Assembly cannot afford to fail Nigerians.
It is a fact that there are dangers associated with smoking. The World Health organisation estimated that 5.4 million people die every year due to a tobacco related diseases. The majority of these deaths occurred in developing countries. Tobacco is the only consumer product that is guaranteed to kill half of its consumers if used according to manufacturers‘ intention. It contains more than 4,000 dangerous chemicals harmful to the body.
It is also a fact that stringent measures aimed at reducing smoking in Europe and America have driven the tobacco industry to developing countries like Nigeria.Recent surveys suggested that more young people are becoming smokers every- day, while a survey conducted in Lagos hospitals reveals that two persons die each day from a tobacco related disease. Governments all over the world are putting measures in place to combat the epidemic through enactment of bills like the one Mamoora has proposed.
It will be to the credit of this National Assembly to expedite action on the bill and pass it before the expiration of this democratic dispensation. Nigeria played a major part in shaping global health policies especially in tobacco control. The world is watching and waiting. The National Assembly cannot afford to fail Nigerians.
Seun Akioye
1, Balogun Street, Off Awolowo Way, Ikeja, Lagos.
1, Balogun Street, Off Awolowo Way, Ikeja, Lagos.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
'Anti-tobacco bill is still alive'
By Michael Orie and Wole Oyebade
ANTI-TOBACCO activists, under the aegis of Environmental Rights Action / Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), have debunked the purported 'death' of the National Tobacco Control Bill (NTCB) at the National Assembly, insisting that the bill was still under consideration before the Senate Committee on Health.
Their reaction came in the wake of Senator Kamaldeen Adedibu's insinuation to the effect that the bill, which has passed the public hearing stage, "is dead."
At a media briefing in Lagos yesterday, Programme Manager, ERA, Oluwafemi Akinbode, said: "Contrary to the lies and deception of the statements credited to the senator, the NTCB bill is not dead. The bill scaled through the second reading in the Senate in February 2009 and at that reading, all the senators present and who spoke at the plenary expressed strong support for the bill.
"Indeed, Senate President David Mark, while referring the bill to the Committee on Health, enjoined the members to expedite action on it because of the intense lobbying power of the tobacco industry, which seeks to derail the enactment of law that would protect the lives of Nigerians and also curtail the industry's criminal activities."
ERA described Adedibu's comments as "inflammatory, albeit deceitful, reckless, misleading and totally false."
The National Tobacco Control Bill 2009, sponsored by Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora (Lagos East), seeks to provide the regulation or control of production, manufacture, sale, advertising, promotion and sponsorship of tobacco or tobacco products in Nigeria and other related matters.
The bill also seeks to prohibit sale of cigarette to persons under 18; sale of tobacco products through vending machines; and sale of cigarette in single sticks;
It also seeks to prohibit all forms of tobacco advertisement, sponsorship and promotion, endorsements or testimonials, sale promotions; and smoking in public places, among others.
Akinbode also disclosed that a two-day public hearing was organised by the Senate Committee on Health headed by Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello on July 20 to 21, 2009, with the Federal Ministry of Health leading government agencies to lend support for the bill.
His words: "In all, over 40 Non-Government Organizations (NGO) presented memoranda supporting the bill and asking for its speedy passage. Besides, there were words of commendation and support for the bill from five International NGOs; Campaign for Tobacco Free kids (CTFK), Framework Convention Alliance (FCA), Corporate Accountability International (CAI), African Tobacco Control Alliance (ATCA) and the African Tobacco Control Regional Initiative (ATCRI).
"Besides the tobacco Industry, only Senator Adedibu, who represents the Oyo South Federal Constituency, expressed his opposition, hinging his reason on loss of jobs and vowing to oppose the bill even if that would be the only thing he would do in the Senate.
"The committee has not presented the bill to the plenary and we know for a fact that there was supposed to be a retreat on the result of the public hearing but for the recent political developments in the country. Therefore the bill has not been voted on by the Senate plenary, how then did it die?"
African regional coordinator, Framework Convention Alliance, Adeola Akinremi, disclosed that the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that tobacco kills 5.4 million people every year and if current trend continues, it would kill more than eight million people.
In 2006, from a survey carried out in 11 Lagos State government-owned hospitals, it was discovered that at least two persons die each day from a tobacco-related disease. Also in one single year, about 10 000 cases of tobacco-disease was recorded in Lagos.
Akinremi said: "All we need to do is extrapolate that figure all over the country and we will have an idea of the epidemic we are dealing with.
"ERA/FoEN wishes to condemn in its totality the activities of Senator Adedibu. We demand that he immediately cease from making such statements and ask the Senate leadership to investigate his allegations.
"However, while we still have trust in the Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello-led committee, we are constrained to be apprehensive about the long delay in presenting the bill at plenary. This is the time to complete work on this public health bill. This is the only way to show the world that the committee has not been compromised by the tobacco industry as Senator Adedibu has insinuated.
"Nigerians are dying by the seconds due to tobacco addition while tobacco manufacturers smile to the banks. Every delay is more deaths, more ill-health."
ANTI-TOBACCO activists, under the aegis of Environmental Rights Action / Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), have debunked the purported 'death' of the National Tobacco Control Bill (NTCB) at the National Assembly, insisting that the bill was still under consideration before the Senate Committee on Health.
Their reaction came in the wake of Senator Kamaldeen Adedibu's insinuation to the effect that the bill, which has passed the public hearing stage, "is dead."
At a media briefing in Lagos yesterday, Programme Manager, ERA, Oluwafemi Akinbode, said: "Contrary to the lies and deception of the statements credited to the senator, the NTCB bill is not dead. The bill scaled through the second reading in the Senate in February 2009 and at that reading, all the senators present and who spoke at the plenary expressed strong support for the bill.
"Indeed, Senate President David Mark, while referring the bill to the Committee on Health, enjoined the members to expedite action on it because of the intense lobbying power of the tobacco industry, which seeks to derail the enactment of law that would protect the lives of Nigerians and also curtail the industry's criminal activities."
ERA described Adedibu's comments as "inflammatory, albeit deceitful, reckless, misleading and totally false."
The National Tobacco Control Bill 2009, sponsored by Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora (Lagos East), seeks to provide the regulation or control of production, manufacture, sale, advertising, promotion and sponsorship of tobacco or tobacco products in Nigeria and other related matters.
The bill also seeks to prohibit sale of cigarette to persons under 18; sale of tobacco products through vending machines; and sale of cigarette in single sticks;
It also seeks to prohibit all forms of tobacco advertisement, sponsorship and promotion, endorsements or testimonials, sale promotions; and smoking in public places, among others.
Akinbode also disclosed that a two-day public hearing was organised by the Senate Committee on Health headed by Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello on July 20 to 21, 2009, with the Federal Ministry of Health leading government agencies to lend support for the bill.
His words: "In all, over 40 Non-Government Organizations (NGO) presented memoranda supporting the bill and asking for its speedy passage. Besides, there were words of commendation and support for the bill from five International NGOs; Campaign for Tobacco Free kids (CTFK), Framework Convention Alliance (FCA), Corporate Accountability International (CAI), African Tobacco Control Alliance (ATCA) and the African Tobacco Control Regional Initiative (ATCRI).
"Besides the tobacco Industry, only Senator Adedibu, who represents the Oyo South Federal Constituency, expressed his opposition, hinging his reason on loss of jobs and vowing to oppose the bill even if that would be the only thing he would do in the Senate.
"The committee has not presented the bill to the plenary and we know for a fact that there was supposed to be a retreat on the result of the public hearing but for the recent political developments in the country. Therefore the bill has not been voted on by the Senate plenary, how then did it die?"
African regional coordinator, Framework Convention Alliance, Adeola Akinremi, disclosed that the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that tobacco kills 5.4 million people every year and if current trend continues, it would kill more than eight million people.
In 2006, from a survey carried out in 11 Lagos State government-owned hospitals, it was discovered that at least two persons die each day from a tobacco-related disease. Also in one single year, about 10 000 cases of tobacco-disease was recorded in Lagos.
Akinremi said: "All we need to do is extrapolate that figure all over the country and we will have an idea of the epidemic we are dealing with.
"ERA/FoEN wishes to condemn in its totality the activities of Senator Adedibu. We demand that he immediately cease from making such statements and ask the Senate leadership to investigate his allegations.
"However, while we still have trust in the Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello-led committee, we are constrained to be apprehensive about the long delay in presenting the bill at plenary. This is the time to complete work on this public health bill. This is the only way to show the world that the committee has not been compromised by the tobacco industry as Senator Adedibu has insinuated.
"Nigerians are dying by the seconds due to tobacco addition while tobacco manufacturers smile to the banks. Every delay is more deaths, more ill-health."
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Nigeria's smoking habit
Tobacco kills close to five million people yearly worldwide with over 70 percent of deaths occurring in developing countries including Nigeria where about 12 percent of the population are addicted to nicotine.
Now the Nigerian parliament seems to have responded with a tobacco control bill.
If passed, this could be the biggest tobacco crackdown in the history of Nigeria.
From Lagos, the BBC's Fidelis Mbah, reports.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Researchers Call for Stronger Controls on Tobacco
The debate over a new and wholistic national tobacco control laws in Nigeria have been the concern of Anti-Tobacco Control Advocates, Nigerian Government and those engaging in the cultivation, processing, distribution, advertising and marketing of tobacco's lethal products.
A Public Hearing on the National Tobacco Control Bill 2009 was held on July 21 and 22 by the Nigeria Senate's Health Committe to this effect, in which over 40 civil society group made presentaions. The bill which would amend the 1990 Tobacco Control Laws of Nigeria is sponsored by Deputy Minority Leader, Senator OlorunimbeMamora, will completely domesticate the WHO Framework Convention onTobacco Control (FCTC), which Nigeria signed in 2004 and ratified in2005 but is yet to fully domesticate in Nigeria.
The imperative of a new tobacco control laws is not new to Nigeria as example abound elsewhere in the world. The New Zealand case report below not only call for a stronger control but emphaise the rich benefits of putting one in place as well as the modalities. In other word, the draft National Tobocco Control Bill 2009 is a product of a rich consultation so that when passed into law will be adequate to address the subject matter of tobacco control beyond the scope its 1990 content would.
New Zealand- Call for Stronger Controls on Tobacco
Health researchers say tobacco control policies should be strengthened or modified because they have reduced smoking by only 3%.
The issue is being discussed at the public health association conference at Otago University in Dunedin.
Professor Peter Crampton from Otago University campus in Wellington told delegates that in 1996 about 24% of New Zealanders were smokers. Despite significant reforms, he says, a decade later that figure had dropped by just 3%.
Professor Crampton says smoking prevalence has actually increased over that period in several demographics. He believes the figures illustrate that dramatic changes to tobacco policy are required.
Another researcher, Professor Richard Edwards, suggests a tobacco supply agency be established to restrict the amount of tobacco entering New Zealand.
He says the agency would buy the tobacco from the tobacco industry and then control how and where it was sold.
Professor Edwards says sales could be banned within 1km of schools and tobacco sold in plain packaging featuring only health warnings.
The issue is being discussed at the public health association conference at Otago University in Dunedin.
Professor Peter Crampton from Otago University campus in Wellington told delegates that in 1996 about 24% of New Zealanders were smokers. Despite significant reforms, he says, a decade later that figure had dropped by just 3%.
Professor Crampton says smoking prevalence has actually increased over that period in several demographics. He believes the figures illustrate that dramatic changes to tobacco policy are required.
Another researcher, Professor Richard Edwards, suggests a tobacco supply agency be established to restrict the amount of tobacco entering New Zealand.
He says the agency would buy the tobacco from the tobacco industry and then control how and where it was sold.
Professor Edwards says sales could be banned within 1km of schools and tobacco sold in plain packaging featuring only health warnings.
Copyright © 2009 Radio New Zealand
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
How Tobacco Bill Provoked Controversy in Senate
Wife of former Chief Justice of Nigeria and member of the African Union Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, Mrs. Maryam Uwais and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello are engaged in a healthy, even if needless, argument on the propriety or otherwise of disallowing children to participate in the recently-held public hearing on the Tobacco Control Bill in the Senate. Sufuyan Ojeifo examines the tenor of the controversy.
The purpose of the public hearing on the Tobacco Control Bill held on July 20 and 21, this year, in the Senate Hearing Room One, was to get stakeholders’ input into the Bill, preparatory to the Third Reading (clause-by-clause consideration and passage). From the various submissions at the hearing, it was evident that the anti-Tobacco Control Bill groups were in the minority. The majority groups understandably succeeded in swaying public sentiments in favour of the Bill, which was sponsored by Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora.The pro-Tobacco Control Bill groups already had their task well-cut out for them by the sponsor of the Bill and the entire membership of the Senate Committee on Health, all of whom were on the same page in their mission to achieve control, sale and consumption of the product. Specifically, the proposed legislation is entitled: “A Bill for an Act to Repeal the Tobacco (Control) Act 1990 Cap T16 Laws of the Federation and to Enact the National Tobacco Control Bill 2009 to provide for the Regulation or Control of Production, Manufacture, Sale, Advertising, Promotion and Sponsorship of Tobacco or Tobacco Products in Nigerian and for other Relates Matters.”
Expectedly, the issue was controversial. Apart from the British America Tobacco Nigeria (BATN), which attempted a diplomatic opposition, there was groundswell of support for the Bill. It agreed that tobacco had impact on public health, but supported appropriate regulation the industry as it would help to reduce the impact.
But the controversy that has unexpectedly bludgeoned its way into the public domain on account of the public hearing, organised by the Senate Committee on Health under the Chair of Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, centres on the propriety or otherwise of disallowing some school children to air their views on the occasion.
Wife of former Chief Justice of Nigeria and member of the African Union Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, Mrs. Maryam Uwais and Obasanjo-Bello are engaged in disputation over the decision by the latter to shut out the children from making a presentation at the hearing.
Uwais was miffed that the rights of the school children were abridged. She is, no doubt, an advocate of the protection of the child rights. On her part, Obasanjo-Bello insisted that the children come before their rights and from her position, she is an advocate of the protection of the child. Specifically, Uwais had in a letter to Obasanjo-Bello, copies of which were sent to the Senate President, Senator David Mark and Senator Mamora (sponsor of the Bill) said that in denying the children the opportunity to speak, Obasanjo-Bello had said that she was a mother and so felt the need to protect children.
According to Uwais: “You aid that you would not allow children to be ‘used’ or ‘paraded’ before the Committee and that even in law courts, the evidence of a child would need to be corroborated during a trial. Besides, in your view, since adults were present and knew what the issues were, there was absolutely no need for a person under the age of 18 to participate in the proceedings.
“To further support your own assertions, you added that at hearings in the Senate, persons who intended to contribute could be compelled to swear oaths on the scriptures appropriate to their faiths, which in fact, in your understanding, was another excuse for denying them the right to be heard on an issue that concerns them, also. In conclusion, you mentioned that the Child Rights Act did not allow for children to speak at such fora.”
After citing the various sections of the Constitution, the Child Rights Act 2003 and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ratified by Nigeria since July 23, 2001), she knocked off the position of Obasanjo-Bello. She said that that public hearing was not a court of law as the Senator would want people to believe. She said “while not delving into the justifications and reasons for the policy, laws and formalities that apply in family court proceedings or in trials where children testify as witnesses and the need for corroboration and/or not swearing on oath or not, the point must be made that rules of evidence that are strictly observed in a court of law do not apply to public hearings.
“Indeed, even in judicial proceedings concerning a child, the court is compelled to make available the opportunity for the views of the child to be heard directly or through an impartial representatives, depending on the circumstances; the fact remains that his or her views must be heard and the court is obliged to ensure that, in its own discretion, predicated upon the best interests of the child…”
The first reaction to Uwais came from Lawyer-Aides in the National Assembly (LANASS), under the leadership of Mr. Akande Oluwatosin, which faulted the position Uwais, to the effect that Obasanjo-Bello violated the rights of the school children by not allowing them to present their position at the just concluded public hearing on the Tobacco Control Bill. The body, in a statement issued 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 covered them. 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, which states: ‘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 defence, 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 (school children) be refrained from public discussions on smoking for protectionist reasons.”
LANASS said that it could 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.”
But in her reply to Uwais dated July 29, 2009, Obasanjo-Bello said, “…On the second day, Mrs. Uwais was again present. After the first few speakers, I asked what other groups were present and the presence of some children in school uniform was indicated. I had seen the children and assumed they were observers to the proceeding which is allowed and even educative.
“I said and insisted children are not allowed to give uncorroborated evidence in court and that the school children being minors would not be allowed to talk on an issue that could easily be resolved by adults. Please note that apart from being minors, the children submitted no memorandum as individuals or as a group and did not represent any group. The public hearing was specifically on the Tobacco Bill; all other issues were irrelevant unless it directly affected our understanding of the Tobacco issue in Nigeria.”
“According to the sixth edition of the Columbia Encyclopaedia, 2008, the age of consent is the age which according to the law, persons are bound by their words and acts. Below the minor age, unless there are extenuating circumstances, children are not allowed to give evidence in court. On a comparative level, legislative investigations in a Presidential system are fashioned after law courts and Senate Committees here and in the US are allowed to subpoena persons and do have legal backing as courts.
“Committee findings can lead to various reprimands and sanctions and can be followed by arrest. It is a criminal offence to lie before a legislative committee. We are allowed to ask people to take oath if deemed necessary. Senate Committees are allowed to make their own rules as long as it follows the rules of the Senate. Deciding who will speak in the Senate chambers is the prerogative of the Senate President and in a committee room; it is the prerogative of the Chairman of the committee,” she said. She added, “Order 64 of the standing rules of the Senate 2003, says ‘the President in the Senate and Chairman in any Committee shall be responsible for the observance of the rules of the Order in the Senate and Committee respectively and their decision upon any point of order shall not be open to appeal and shall not be reviewed by the Senate except upon a substantive motion after notice.’
“Age of consent is important to protect children from exploitation. It is generally agreed that children can be easily manipulated and their opinions tutored and I don’t believe this is my idea as it is normal in all jurisdictions across the world not to unnecessarily expose children to adult issues such as violence and sexual content. I don’t think I am saying anything that is not universally accepted to say children can be easily influenced.
“To obtain testimony from a minor, the parent or guardian has to be present or there must be verifiable written consent from them. Taking a child out of school on a school day on an issue where there was no disagreement like protecting children from tobacco is insensitive on the part of the people that did it and it’s against the welfare of the children. Middle class people usually do not do this to their children but it’s the children of poorer people that are pulled from school and brought to a hearing room on an issue they do not need to participate in.
“Will these same people allow their own children to be taken out of school for such matter? I am a mother and I will not let any school allow my child to be taken for such an event. The best child right is not about exposing children to undue interference but in letting them grow up to have their own opinions and make their minds up about ideas on their own. That is the essence of the right to Freedom of Expression in the 1999 Constitution alluded to by Mrs. Uwais.
“It is actually child exploitation to subject children to give testimony to prove one’s point especially when the protection of the children from smoking was not a part of the bill that was being disputed. If the children lost confidence from not being allowed to talk in the senate, it was the fault of the people that brought them without clearing or following laid down rules by the committee.
“In order to forestall rancorous and unnecessary disputations during committee hearings, it is the norm to always ask for prior submission of memo before the hearing date so that stakeholders can be listed and if need be appropriately advised. This was not the case with these school children in uniforms during school hours without a tinge of evidence of their parents/guardians consent.”
Obasanjo-Bello continued: “After I made my decision not to allow the children to speak, Mrs. Uwais wrote a note to Senator Mamora who was sitting to my right and he showed me the note and whispered to my ears that I should let the children speak based on the note, I reiterated my point to the audience and moved on. Several minutes later, Mrs. Uwais again sent a note to Senator Ekaette, sitting on my left, showed me another note from Mrs. Uwais but advised that I should go on with the hearing as she was leaving for another committee commitment. I again made my point about not allowing children to speak. Must one listen to Mrs. Uwais’ advocacy for child’s rights in a matter involving Tobacco?”
Consider her summation of the Uwais opposition: “Apparently, I am being blackmailed since last week in national newspapers because I didn’t allow Mrs. Uwais to have her way. My authority as chair of the Committee means nothing to Mrs. Uwais if she is not allowed to have her way or I let the children talk. The hearing was not about children’s right but Tobacco; why should we divert the proceedings to child rights so she would have her way.”
Her conclusion: “Finally, under the United Nations convention on the rights of the child, a child is anyone under the age of 18 and these children need to be protected from exploitation. It is in line with the rules of the Senate as well as under common law not to allow children give uncorroborated evidence. There was no compelling reason to allow the children to give evidence since the issue of tobacco negatively affecting children and health generally was not controverted by anyone at the hearing….
“In consonance with the rules of the Senate, it is my prerogative to allow anyone to talk as the Senate President also has the prerogative to allow any senator or anyone else to talk as he deems fit. By all standards, local and international, public hearings are no place for children. Almost all national issues, directly or indirectly, affect children and that does not mean that we must parade children to give their opinions on all issues.
“Everything from economy to violence in our society affects children but we don’t necessarily parade them before the Senate when such are being discussed. I lived in the US when some of the tobacco hearings were being conducted in the US senate and I never saw children give evidence. I don’t know why in Nigeria with the prominent breaches of the child’s rights, the so called activists for children’s rights cannot do anything to make us feel their impact.
“In all this, I see lack of knowledge of legislative process, rules and procedure. The tobacco bill had a good public hearing and there is no need to create an issue where none exists: not even from a seeming outsider…who weeps louder than the bereaved. I plead with Mrs. Uwais to leave this matter alone and move on to many of the breaches of the Child’s Right Act that occur every day and lead to serious physical and emotional damage to children.” Will this controversy abate or it will continue to dominate the public space over and above the real issue of controlling Tobacco production, manufacture, sale, advertising, promotion, et al?
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.”
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Uwais’ wife tackles Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello over tobacco bill
By Yusuf Alli
The wife of a former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Mrs. Maryam Uwais, yesterday faulted the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, for barring school pupils from contributing to the debate on the National Tobacco Control Bill before the Senate.
She spoke through a protest letter to Senate President David Mark on the alleged prohibition of pupils from contributing to the bill on July 20 and 21.
The letter reads in part: "You may recall that a public hearing was held on the 20th and 21st of July on a proposed National Tobacco Control Bill, sponsored by Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora, which proceedings were held under the auspices of the Committee of Health, chaired by your good self.
"Several stakeholders, representing different organisations, interests and various jurisdictions of Nigeria participated in the hearing, which fact in itself, demonstrated the significance and timeliness of the contents of this very important piece of legislation.
"Being a member of the African Union Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, I was delighted when I noticed that there were young persons (from a senior secondary school class, as I was made to understand) in the audience, who signified that they intended to contribute to the discussions at the hearing.
"To my consternation, however, they were roundly rejected by no other person than you.
" Indeed, you proceeded to state, four times, what your reasons were for puncturing their enthusiasm in such a dismissive manner, even though from the first time (and each time) you spoke to the issue, you ended your statement with ‘no more will be said on this matter’.
"You declined any observations or contributions on the issue from the floor (or indeed, as I noticed, from your distinguished colleagues), concluding that you were correct in your assertions that pupils could not be permitted to participate in the discussions on the merits and demerits of the provisions of that bill.
"Your reasons, if I may recall, were that you were a mother yourself, and so felt the need to ‘protect’ children.
"You stated that you would not allow children to be ‘used’ or ‘paraded’ before the committee; and that even in the law courts, the evidence of a child would need to be corroborated during a trial.
"Besides, in your view, since adults were present and knew what the issues were, there was absolutely no need for a person under the age of 18 to participate in the proceedings.
"To further support your assertions, you added that at hearings in the Senate, persons who intended to contribute could be compelled to swear oaths on the scriptures relevant to their faiths, which in your understanding, was another excuse for denying them the right to be heard on an issue that concerns them.
"In conclusion, you mentioned that the Child Rights Act did not allow for children to speak at such forum. I am constrained to join issues with you on your position, even because your assertions run contrary to known laws, norms and emerging trends when it comes to children and young persons, their freedom to express themselves and their participation in matters that concern them.
"The unfortunate statement that those young persons were ‘brought along’ to the hearing for the purposes of being ‘used’ or ‘paraded’ was presumptuous, to say the least, as they certainly did not look like they were coerced, uncomfortable or were present in the hearing room against their wishes.
But I will not say more on this point, as it would only distract from the aim of this letter.
"The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria guarantees every citizen, children inclusive, their freedom of expression under Section 39.
"The Constitution certainly does not preclude children from the enjoyment of this fundamental right, as I am certain you would agree that children are also persons. Indeed, the Child Rights Act, 2003, fortifies this position clearly by its Section 3.
"Moreover, S. 19 of this same Child Rights Act, 2003, categorically provides that:
(1) ‘Every child has responsibilities towards his family and society, the Federal Republic of Nigeria and other legalised communities, nationally and internationally. These responsibilities include, under (2) (c) & (d), placing his or her physical and intellectual abilities at the service of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, contributing to the moral well-being of the society and respecting the ideals of democracy, freedom, equality, humaneness, honesty and justice for all persons.’
"About 200 child rights clubs have been established all over the country, to promote representation, association and participation by building children’s capacities and competencies. This, it is hoped, would enable them act effectively as peer educators and would further boost their confidence and self-esteem preparatory to holding the sundry responsibilities of citizenship and adulthood. Children’s views on national issues have been encouraged through debates, essay competitions and art exhibitions, while special events and programs have been designed and supported by the Government, all with the aim of ensuring their effective participation in National life.
"Children and young persons have been involved in many governmental and non-governmental activities, including the promotion of the awareness of HIV/AIDS, reproductive health and the development of life skills among adolescents, while the electronic and print media have created specific spaces for children to express themselves.
None of the aforementioned efforts are considered harmful exposure, neither has any organisation or government body which involves children in its constructive activities, been accused of ‘parading’ children in pursuance of some unsubstantiated motive."
On oath taking, Mrs. Uwais said: "As a senator, you do know that a public hearing is an opportunity for interested stakeholders to participate in the business of lawmaking, even so that laws are made with input from those in whose interests the laws are made.
"A public hearing is, therefore, not a court of law, as you so strenuously sought to affirm. Indeed, heavy weather was made of proceedings relating to children in a courtroom, which points were not quite clear, despite your repeated references to that scenario.
The wife of a former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Mrs. Maryam Uwais, yesterday faulted the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, for barring school pupils from contributing to the debate on the National Tobacco Control Bill before the Senate.She spoke through a protest letter to Senate President David Mark on the alleged prohibition of pupils from contributing to the bill on July 20 and 21.
The letter reads in part: "You may recall that a public hearing was held on the 20th and 21st of July on a proposed National Tobacco Control Bill, sponsored by Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora, which proceedings were held under the auspices of the Committee of Health, chaired by your good self.
"Several stakeholders, representing different organisations, interests and various jurisdictions of Nigeria participated in the hearing, which fact in itself, demonstrated the significance and timeliness of the contents of this very important piece of legislation.
"Being a member of the African Union Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, I was delighted when I noticed that there were young persons (from a senior secondary school class, as I was made to understand) in the audience, who signified that they intended to contribute to the discussions at the hearing.
"To my consternation, however, they were roundly rejected by no other person than you.
" Indeed, you proceeded to state, four times, what your reasons were for puncturing their enthusiasm in such a dismissive manner, even though from the first time (and each time) you spoke to the issue, you ended your statement with ‘no more will be said on this matter’.
"You declined any observations or contributions on the issue from the floor (or indeed, as I noticed, from your distinguished colleagues), concluding that you were correct in your assertions that pupils could not be permitted to participate in the discussions on the merits and demerits of the provisions of that bill.
"Your reasons, if I may recall, were that you were a mother yourself, and so felt the need to ‘protect’ children.
"You stated that you would not allow children to be ‘used’ or ‘paraded’ before the committee; and that even in the law courts, the evidence of a child would need to be corroborated during a trial.
"Besides, in your view, since adults were present and knew what the issues were, there was absolutely no need for a person under the age of 18 to participate in the proceedings.
"To further support your assertions, you added that at hearings in the Senate, persons who intended to contribute could be compelled to swear oaths on the scriptures relevant to their faiths, which in your understanding, was another excuse for denying them the right to be heard on an issue that concerns them.
"In conclusion, you mentioned that the Child Rights Act did not allow for children to speak at such forum. I am constrained to join issues with you on your position, even because your assertions run contrary to known laws, norms and emerging trends when it comes to children and young persons, their freedom to express themselves and their participation in matters that concern them.
"The unfortunate statement that those young persons were ‘brought along’ to the hearing for the purposes of being ‘used’ or ‘paraded’ was presumptuous, to say the least, as they certainly did not look like they were coerced, uncomfortable or were present in the hearing room against their wishes.
But I will not say more on this point, as it would only distract from the aim of this letter.
"The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria guarantees every citizen, children inclusive, their freedom of expression under Section 39.
"The Constitution certainly does not preclude children from the enjoyment of this fundamental right, as I am certain you would agree that children are also persons. Indeed, the Child Rights Act, 2003, fortifies this position clearly by its Section 3.
"Moreover, S. 19 of this same Child Rights Act, 2003, categorically provides that:
(1) ‘Every child has responsibilities towards his family and society, the Federal Republic of Nigeria and other legalised communities, nationally and internationally. These responsibilities include, under (2) (c) & (d), placing his or her physical and intellectual abilities at the service of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, contributing to the moral well-being of the society and respecting the ideals of democracy, freedom, equality, humaneness, honesty and justice for all persons.’
"About 200 child rights clubs have been established all over the country, to promote representation, association and participation by building children’s capacities and competencies. This, it is hoped, would enable them act effectively as peer educators and would further boost their confidence and self-esteem preparatory to holding the sundry responsibilities of citizenship and adulthood. Children’s views on national issues have been encouraged through debates, essay competitions and art exhibitions, while special events and programs have been designed and supported by the Government, all with the aim of ensuring their effective participation in National life.
"Children and young persons have been involved in many governmental and non-governmental activities, including the promotion of the awareness of HIV/AIDS, reproductive health and the development of life skills among adolescents, while the electronic and print media have created specific spaces for children to express themselves.
None of the aforementioned efforts are considered harmful exposure, neither has any organisation or government body which involves children in its constructive activities, been accused of ‘parading’ children in pursuance of some unsubstantiated motive."
On oath taking, Mrs. Uwais said: "As a senator, you do know that a public hearing is an opportunity for interested stakeholders to participate in the business of lawmaking, even so that laws are made with input from those in whose interests the laws are made.
"A public hearing is, therefore, not a court of law, as you so strenuously sought to affirm. Indeed, heavy weather was made of proceedings relating to children in a courtroom, which points were not quite clear, despite your repeated references to that scenario.
WHO, Others Back Tobacco Control Bill
By Laolu Adeyemi
THE Public Hearing on the National Tobacco Control Bill conducted this week by the Iyabo Obasanjo Bello-led Senate Health Committee has generated commendations from international agencies and non-governmental groups.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) Country Representative in Nigeria, represented at the Public hearing by Dr. Kayode Soyinka, commended the Senate for taking steps to rescue the lives of millions of Nigerians from tobacco addiction.
"We fully support this effort which is to domesticate the WHO- initiated Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Nigeria became a party to this convention in October 2005 and this bill fully conforms to the provisions of the international treaty," the WHO Representative said.
A leading tobacco control group in the United States, the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids (CFTK), in a memorandum to the Public Hearing signed by its President, Matt Myers, expressed full support for the bill "in its current form" and urged the Senate to pass it swiftly.
CTFK said: "The National Tobacco Control Bill is essential to bringing Nigeria into compliance with its international obligations under the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which Nigeria ratified in October 2005.
"Under the FCTC, Nigeria is obliged, among other things, to protect the health of its citizens by prohibiting smoking in public places, workplaces, public transport, and other appropriate places; to impose a comprehensive ban on advertising, promotion and sponsorship of tobacco products; and to require strong and prominent health warnings on tobacco products."
Another US-based group, Corporate Accountability International (CAI) commended the Senate's move to domesticate the FCTC, pointing out that urgent and bold actions are needed to stem rising tobacco - related deaths across the world 80 per cent, which occur in the Global South.
The corporate accountability group, in a letter to members of the Senate Health Committee and signed by its International Policy Director, Kathryn Mulvey, however, urged the Senate to, in accordance with Article 5. 3 of the FCTC, incorporate measures to protect the tobacco control law from interference from tobacco industry.
"Full implementation of the FCTC in Nigeria and around the world will save millions of lives and change the way Big Tobacco operates globally," CAI stressed.
Also, the Africa Tobacco Control Alliance (ATCA), the umbrella body of groups and institutions working on tobacco control in Africa, in a letter signed by its Chairperson, Racheal Kitonyo noted that Nigeria is not alone in the quest to domesticate FCTC provisions, noting; " Nigeria would be following the lead of other African countries such as South Africa, Kenya and Mauritius that have already begun implementation of FCTC provisions."
At the public hearing, which ended on Tuesday, over 40 civil society groups sent in memoranda to support the bill. The Public Hearing also featured statements of support from eminent Nigerians including Nigeria's Minister of Heath, Professor Babatunde Osotimehin represented by a Director at the Ministry, Dr. Mike Anibueze; former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Alhaji Umaru Modibo, former Attorney General of Lagos State, Prof. Yemi Osibajo, the wife of immediate past Chief Justice of the Federation, Mrs. Maryan Uwais, among others. SOURCE
Group hails senate over tobacco bill
APPLAUSE came the way of the Senate yesterday over its public hearing on National Tobacco Bill held this week from both local and international organisations. The World Health Organisation (WHO) Country Representative in Nigeria, represented at the Public hearing by Dr Kayode Soyinka, commended the legislative chamber for taking steps to rescue the lives of millions of Nigerians from tobacco addiction.
" We fully support this effort which is to domesticate the WHO- initiated Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Nigeria became a Party to this Convention in October 2005 and this bill fully conforms to the provisions of the international treaty," the WHO Representative said.
A leading tobacco control group in the United States, the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids (CFTK) in a
memorandum to the Public Hearing signed by its President, Matt Myers, expressed full support for the bill "in its current form" and urged the Senate to pass it swiftly. CTFK said: "The National Tobacco Control Bill is essential to bring Nigeria into compliance with its international obligations under the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which Nigeria ratified in October 2005."
"Under the FCTC, Nigeria is obliged, among other things; to protect the health of its citizens by prohibiting smoking in public places, workplaces, public transport, and other appropriate places; to impose a comprehensive ban on advertising, promotion and sponsorship of tobacco products; and to require strong and prominent health warnings on tobacco products," it added.
Another US-based group, Corporate Accountability International (CAI) commended the Senate's move to domesticate the FCTC, pointing out that urgent and bold actions are needed to stem rising tobacco - related deaths across the world 80 per cent of which occur in the Global South.
The corporate accountability group, in a letter to members of the Senate Health Committee and signed by its International Policy Director, Kathryn Mulvey, however, urged the Senate to in accordance with Article 5. 3 of the FCTC incorporate measures to protect the tobacco control law from interference from tobacco industry. SOURCE
THE Public Hearing on the National Tobacco Control Bill conducted this week by the Iyabo Obasanjo Bello-led Senate Health Committee has generated commendations from international agencies and non-governmental groups.The World Health Organisation (WHO) Country Representative in Nigeria, represented at the Public hearing by Dr. Kayode Soyinka, commended the Senate for taking steps to rescue the lives of millions of Nigerians from tobacco addiction.
"We fully support this effort which is to domesticate the WHO- initiated Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Nigeria became a party to this convention in October 2005 and this bill fully conforms to the provisions of the international treaty," the WHO Representative said.
A leading tobacco control group in the United States, the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids (CFTK), in a memorandum to the Public Hearing signed by its President, Matt Myers, expressed full support for the bill "in its current form" and urged the Senate to pass it swiftly.
CTFK said: "The National Tobacco Control Bill is essential to bringing Nigeria into compliance with its international obligations under the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which Nigeria ratified in October 2005.
"Under the FCTC, Nigeria is obliged, among other things, to protect the health of its citizens by prohibiting smoking in public places, workplaces, public transport, and other appropriate places; to impose a comprehensive ban on advertising, promotion and sponsorship of tobacco products; and to require strong and prominent health warnings on tobacco products."
Another US-based group, Corporate Accountability International (CAI) commended the Senate's move to domesticate the FCTC, pointing out that urgent and bold actions are needed to stem rising tobacco - related deaths across the world 80 per cent, which occur in the Global South.
The corporate accountability group, in a letter to members of the Senate Health Committee and signed by its International Policy Director, Kathryn Mulvey, however, urged the Senate to, in accordance with Article 5. 3 of the FCTC, incorporate measures to protect the tobacco control law from interference from tobacco industry.
"Full implementation of the FCTC in Nigeria and around the world will save millions of lives and change the way Big Tobacco operates globally," CAI stressed.
Also, the Africa Tobacco Control Alliance (ATCA), the umbrella body of groups and institutions working on tobacco control in Africa, in a letter signed by its Chairperson, Racheal Kitonyo noted that Nigeria is not alone in the quest to domesticate FCTC provisions, noting; " Nigeria would be following the lead of other African countries such as South Africa, Kenya and Mauritius that have already begun implementation of FCTC provisions."
At the public hearing, which ended on Tuesday, over 40 civil society groups sent in memoranda to support the bill. The Public Hearing also featured statements of support from eminent Nigerians including Nigeria's Minister of Heath, Professor Babatunde Osotimehin represented by a Director at the Ministry, Dr. Mike Anibueze; former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Alhaji Umaru Modibo, former Attorney General of Lagos State, Prof. Yemi Osibajo, the wife of immediate past Chief Justice of the Federation, Mrs. Maryan Uwais, among others. SOURCE
Group hails senate over tobacco bill
APPLAUSE came the way of the Senate yesterday over its public hearing on National Tobacco Bill held this week from both local and international organisations. The World Health Organisation (WHO) Country Representative in Nigeria, represented at the Public hearing by Dr Kayode Soyinka, commended the legislative chamber for taking steps to rescue the lives of millions of Nigerians from tobacco addiction.
" We fully support this effort which is to domesticate the WHO- initiated Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Nigeria became a Party to this Convention in October 2005 and this bill fully conforms to the provisions of the international treaty," the WHO Representative said.
A leading tobacco control group in the United States, the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids (CFTK) in a
memorandum to the Public Hearing signed by its President, Matt Myers, expressed full support for the bill "in its current form" and urged the Senate to pass it swiftly. CTFK said: "The National Tobacco Control Bill is essential to bring Nigeria into compliance with its international obligations under the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which Nigeria ratified in October 2005."
"Under the FCTC, Nigeria is obliged, among other things; to protect the health of its citizens by prohibiting smoking in public places, workplaces, public transport, and other appropriate places; to impose a comprehensive ban on advertising, promotion and sponsorship of tobacco products; and to require strong and prominent health warnings on tobacco products," it added.
Another US-based group, Corporate Accountability International (CAI) commended the Senate's move to domesticate the FCTC, pointing out that urgent and bold actions are needed to stem rising tobacco - related deaths across the world 80 per cent of which occur in the Global South.
The corporate accountability group, in a letter to members of the Senate Health Committee and signed by its International Policy Director, Kathryn Mulvey, however, urged the Senate to in accordance with Article 5. 3 of the FCTC incorporate measures to protect the tobacco control law from interference from tobacco industry. SOURCE
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