Anti-Smoking Bill: How Senate saved .6m jobs

By Oseheye Okwuofu

The Senate says it saved over 600,000 jobs through the Anti-Smoking Bill.
Chairman, Senate Committee on Industries, Kamoru Adedibu, spoke at the weekend in Iseyin, in Oyo State.
Adedibu said 600,000 workers would have lost their jobs.
The senator spoke after presenting a tractor to a farmer in the Farmers’ Tractor Scheme of the British American Tobacco Iseyin Agronomy (BATIA).
He said the Senate reduced the tax regime which had scared away investors.
Adedibu said the Senate also reviewed the bail-out for the textile industries from N200 billion to N300 billion.
"Instead of closing down the tobacco companies, we can regulate the consumption of alcohol in the country, because the closure could affect the lives and fortunes of some people’’, he said.
He advised beneficiaries of the tractor scheme to pay on time to allow others benefit.
Adedibu commended BATIA for contributing to the nation’s economic growth.
Earlier, Head of Leaf BATIA, Thomas Omofoye, said the Iseyin Agronomy has support 850 registered tobacco farmers.
He said 12 farmers have benefited since its inception 10 years ago.
"This is in line with our belief that our business partners should have the opportunity to benefit from their relationship with us’’, Omofoye said.

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Tobacco: Experts blame poor taxation for increase in smoking

-Yekeen Nurudeen

INCREASE in the number of smokers has been attributed to the cheap price of tobacco products, which in turn is caused by Federal Government’s inability to impose heavy tax on the products.
An expert in tobacco control, Akinbode Oluwafemi, made the observation yesterday in Abuja at a one-day workshop organised for journalists on the role of the media in the campaign against smoking in public places in the Federal Capital (FCT).He said if heavy taxation can be imposed on tobacco, the cost of production will increase and this will in turn lead to the increase in the price of the products thereby discouraging youths from smoking. A pack of cigarettes that sells for N200 in Nigeria, according to him, goes for about $5 in the United States of America due to the heavy taxation placed on the manufacturing companies, even as he stressed that “smoking is a sure gateway to drug addiction.”Describing smoking as a major risk factor for different cancer cases, Akinbode said it is also linked to about 15 various cases of cancer in the human body.

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ERA HAILS US TOBACCO BILL, URGES SENATE TO FOLLOW SUIT

The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has praised the United States government for passing a new tobacco control bill into law as it called on the National Assembly to expedite action on the National Tobacco Control Bill 2009, currently before the Senate Committee on Health .

President Barrack Obama has signed into law the new bill which empowers the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to exercise a large degree or regulation and control over manufacture, processing and sale of tobacco products in the US. The law empowers the FDA to limit nicotine levels, limit the use of flavours, restrict advertising in publications targeting young people, and banning outdoor tobacco advertising within 300metres radius of schools, among others.

It also requires tobacco companies to get FDA approval for new products and banned terms such as "light" or "mild" in tobacco packaging which imply a smaller risk to health, and introduce graphic new health warnings of packets.

ERA/FoEN, in a press statement in Lagos, said that with the Nigerian government no longer have any excuse not to immediately begin the implementation of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) which it ratified in October 2005.

Programme Manager, Akinbode Oluwafemi, said the National Assembly should take a cue from last week’s signing into law of a major tobacco bill by President Barrack Obama and expedite works on the national Tobacco Control Bill and the lives of millions of Nigerians especially young children.

Oluwafemi said: “ It has become imperative for Nigeria to follow the good example of progressive countries all over the world as just demonstrated by United States President Barrack Obama in passing a strong tobacco control law that would protect Nigerians both smoker and non smokers alike.

“Governments across the world are taking effective measures to protect the health of citizens from corporations reckless desire for profits. Nigeria must act now,” he added.

The Nigeria Tobacco Control Bill sponsored by Senator Olorunnibe Mammora has passed the second reading in the senate. While referring the bill to the Senate committee on Health, Senate President, David Mark had admonished members to resist lobbying from tobacco industry. He said the Senate owe it a duty to the public health of Nigerians to pass the bill in two weeks .The bill when passed will help save lives of millions of Nigerians who may die from a tobacco related disease.

The bill seeks to ban tobacco advertising, selling cigarettes in single sticks, selling cigarettes within 1,000 meters radius of any school or playground, prohibition of smoking in public places and graphic warnings on cigarettes packs among others.