‘6.5 million Nigerians may die from tobacco addiction’

By Inalegwu Shaibu

ABUJA — The Senate Committee on Health, yesterday, heard that an estimated 6.5 million Nigerians are on death row due to tobacco addiction.

This figure was given by Mr. Aknibode Oluwafemi, Programme Manager of Environmental Rights Actions/Friends of the Earth in a presentation to the Senate Committee on Health at the two-day public hearing on the bill to amend the National Tobacco Control Act, in Abuja.

Oluwafemi also told the Committee that the result of study conducted in Abuja, Lagos, Kano and Ibadan had shown an increase in number of youth smokers to alarming 26 per cent, saying two people die every day in Lagos from tobacco related diseases.

He said: "The National Control Bill is a bold step towards addressing tobacco use and its attendant's health, social, economic and environmental cost. Adult smoking rate in Nigeria is put at 17 per cent."

Earlier in her remark, Chairman of the Committee, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, stressed on the need to regulate tobacco smoking in Nigeria due to its harmful effect on the health on Nigerians.

She said" "There is no doubt right now about the health effects of tobacco. I think that the world has come to a consensus that we can all agree that there is some detrimental health effects of tobacco and it took a long time for the world to get to this point.

35m Nigerians may die smoking

By MOSHOOD ADEBAYO

The health implications of smoking have been reiterated with the World Health Organization (WHO) putting the number of Nigerians that are likely to die from tobacco-related diseases in the next 10 years at 35 million.

Since 1962, there have been damning reports about the health hazards of smoking. For example, the Royal College of Physicians attributes cigarette smoking to cause lung cancer and bronchitis.
According to the College, cigarette smoking is the most likely cause of the recent world-wide increase in deaths from lung cancer."
This was the submission of the counsel to the Ogun State Government, Barrister Bashir Ramon during a one-day enlightenment workshop by the Environmental Rights Action and the Coalition Against Tobacco in Abeokuta.

He spoke just as participants at the workshop commended the state government for litigation against tobacco companies in Nigeria.
Quoting from the WHO, Barrister Ramon also disclosed that 175 million people in the world may also die as a result of related diseases.

"It is alarming, sad and must be prevented. With 175 million people in the world who may likely die of the same related diseases, our government should not fold her arms and allow the havoc to continue," he said.
He also told participants that out of four Africans, there is a Nigerian, meaning that in the total population of Africans; (175 million), Nigeria has one quarter of it. "If you look at this, you would discover that Nigeria has a greater number of people facing the terrible effect of tobacco smoking," he noted.
Shedding light on why the state government had gone to court, Ramon said: "We are not in court for monetary sake. We are in court for the betterment of our people and future of our young ones who are innocently smoking their future."

"Our prayers in the court are that tobacco products are injurious to human health. We are also praying the High Court to stop tobacco companies from advertising and selling their products to the youths in the country".
Explaining further, he said: "Monetary relieve is divided into various strata. The state government is seeking relieve for the expenses she has incurred in the past 20 years and the expenses they are likely to incur in the next 20 years.

"The fact before us shows that they have less than 1000 Nigerian employees. When you consider the population of Nigerians, which is conservatively put at 140 million. Unfortunately, this marginal figure would be producing a product that would affect the lives of over 140 million people. It is sad. It not reasonable"

Ban on tobacco: Senators to vote by name, says Mark

Ayodele Adegbuyi

Senate President, David Mark, has said that when the decision on whether to ban tobacco smoking would be taken at plenary, "every senator will vote... by name."
Mark, who declared open a two-day public hearing on the amendment of Tobacco Control Act 1990, also said that the vote of senators will depend on where each stands between health and economy.
He, however, noted that there was intense pressure from either side, but cautioned those allegedly spreading the rumour that the legislators might have been gratified to sway their vote on the bill.
He said: "Every senator will answer his name. It is not a Bill to be decided by voice vote. Everybody will be made to say 'yes' or 'no' so that the pubic will know where we stand on topical issues like this.
"For a serious bill like this to go through the next reading, people will have to really say where they stand.
"We stand between health and economy that is the truth of the matter. People who are against it are worried about the impact on the health of Nigerians and people who are for it are saying well, the nation stands to benefit from it. The simple question is, 'when do you begin to worry about economy is it when you are dead or when you are alive? And we have to take that decision.
"For me, I am very neutral in this exercise, absolutely neural, and thank God, I don't vote. But the fact remains that all over the world, there appears to be some level of resistance against smoking and people are told in very clear terms that if they do, they take a personal risk.
" Of course, individuals have a right to do what they want. But whether an individual has a right to do something that will affect his life and at the end lead to death is another.
"I admit that there are strong lobbyists on both sides. No doubt about that. The manufacturers are lobbying, likewise those who are against it.
"There are so many things to be considered. Trying to stop Nigerians from smoking is one thing, getting the industry going so that people can be gainfully employed is another thing."

Groups rally support for tobacco bill

Over 40 civil society groups, legal practitioners and public healthadvocates are gearing up to storm the Senate Hearing Room of theNational Assembly Complex, Abuja, on July 21 and 22 to present theirmemorandum in support of the National Tobacco Control Bill (NTCB).

This is coming barely 24 hours after the Senate Committee on Healthcalled for interested members of the public and stakeholders to sendin a list of interested members to appear before it. Groups that have already indicated interest include the NigerianHeart Foundation, Nigerian Cancer Society, Smoke-free Foundation,Abuja, Nigerian Tobacco Control Alliance, Environmental Rights Action,and the Nigerian Association of Nurses and Midwives among others.

International groups that have also rallied in support of the billand sent in a memorandum are the Africa Tobacco Control RegionalInitiative, Framework Convention Alliance (FCA), U.S.-based Campaignfor Tobacco-Free Kids and the Corporate Accountability International.

The bill, 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.

It will make also it an offence to sell or market tobacco products topersons under the age of 18 years and impose a fine not exceedingN50,000 or imprisonment of a term not exceeding six months or both onviolators.

It also prohibits all advertisements, sponsorships, testimonials andpromotion of cigarettes in the country.

According to the Programme Manager, Environmental RightsAction/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), Akinbode Oluwafemi,“the public hearing is another landmark development in efforts tocheckmate a gale of deaths induced by tobacco products after theoverwhelming support that the bill received in the Senate some monthsago.”

SOURCE

Public hearing on Tobacco Bill begins at Senate tomorrow

From Charles Coffie-Gyamfi

THE first public hearing on the proposed National Tobacco Control Bill holds at the Senate tomorrow.

Senator Olurunnibe Mamora has sponsored the bill at the Upper House to check unrestricted marketing, selling and smoking of tobacco in whatever form.

A World Health Organsation (WHO) research has shown that 175 million people would die in the next 10 years as a result of tobacco smoking.

The bill, which has received strong support from the Environmental Right Action (ERA) and Coalition Against Tobacco, two non-governmental organisation (NGOs), aims at ensuring that long-term damaging effects of tobacco on its smokers is curtailed.

Co-ordinator of Coalition Against Tobacco, Mrs. Olatoyosi Onaolapo, who spoke with journalists at the weekend in Abeokuta, disclosed that the organisation had embarked on intensive lobbying to ensure the passage of the bill as a matter of urgency.

"We are in touch with the sponsor of the bill and we have made our input into the drafts. Smoking in public places, unrestricted marketing and sales and smoking by under-aged youths will be prohibited when the bill is eventually passed", she remarked.

According to Onaolapo, Nigeria is one of the countries where there is no legislation against tobacco smoking and marketing, noting that past pronouncements by past governments had never been followed by action.

NIGERIA: A BILL FOR AN ACT TO AMEND TOBACCO CONTROL ACT

The Bill Seeks to repeal the Tobacco Control Act 1990 Cap. T16 Laws of the Fedaration and to Enact the National Tobacco Bill 2009 to provide for the regulation or Control of Production, Manufacture, Sale, Advertising, Promotion, and Sponsorship of Tobacco or Tobacco Product in Nigeria.

Health minister, senators want ban on tobacco

-AMOS DUNIA

Minister of Health, Professor Babatunde Osotimehin has described the economic argument for the production of tobacco in Nigeria as making nonsense of the risk it portends to the people.

Prof. Osotimehin, who stated this at an interactive dinner, organized by Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora in conjunction with Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth, Nigeria, to support the ‘National Tobacco Control Bill’, said the time has come for Nigeria to do everything possible to ban tobacco production in the country.

The Minister of Health lamented the havoc cigarette smoking has caused the nation, saying that while tobacco companies employed about 20,000 people, their products kill an average of 100,000 people per annum, a development he said is unacceptable to Nigeria.He said on assumption of office, he made it clear to British American Tobacco (BAT) that visited him, seeking a working relationship, that there was no way such an understanding can take place because of the overall health interest of the people.

According to Osotimehin, “I want to tell you that I am very passionate about anti-tobacco legislation. The British-American Tobacco (BAT) people once came to talk to me on how we could work together but I said no! I cannot work with BAT people because the human cost of tobacco is enormous.We should do everything possible to ban tobacco smoking because it does not add value at all. Some people talk about the economic value of tobacco companies, but I don’t believe there is any economic value because when they employ 20,000 people, they kill 100,000.”

He, therefore, urged Nigerians, particularly those in positions of authority, to work hard to ensure that Nigeria do not add to the burden already being suffered from HIV infections. The minister, therefore, assured that the Federal Government through the Ministry of Health would throw its weight behind the Anti-Tobacco Bill.

Earlier in his address, convener of the interactive session, Senator Mamora, noted that the United States of America, the highest consumer of tobacco, had legislated against tobacco, stressing that the fact remains that a poison remains a poison no matter how it is coloured.

According to Senator Mamora, “It is worrisome that tobacco companies are leaving the developed countries for the less developed, particularly Africa with Nigeria being the largest market, owing to lack of adequate legislation to curb the danger it portends on the citizenry.

In her remarks, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, assured that her committee has put in motion necessary arrangements to ensure the passage of the National Tobacco Control Bill with a view to enthroning a regime of health safety in the country.

FG to Stop Tobacco Smoking
Inalegwu Shaibu

Abuja — The Minister of Health, Professor Babatunde Osotimehin yesterday revealed the Federal Government's commitment to check the consumption of tobacco in the country, just as the Senate Committee on Health also disclosed that it had perfected arrangement to ensure the passage of the National Tobacco Control Bill.

Professor Osotimehin who spoke at an interactive session organised by the sponsor of the Bill, Senator Olurunimbe Mamora in Abuja decried the huge impact of the harmful effect tobacco smoking is having on the citizens.

He said the government being conscious of the security and welfare of the people, would do anything to pass the law against tobacco consumption.

He said, "I want to tell you that I am very passionate about anti-tobacco legislation. This British-American Tobacco (BAT) people once came to talk to me on how we could work together but I said no! I cannot work with BAT people because the human cost of tobacco is enormous. We should do everything possible to ban tobacco smoking because it does not add value at all.

"Some people talk about the economic value of tobacco companies but I don't believe there is any economic value because when they employ 20,000 people, they kill 100,000.

Govt committed to checking tobacco usage, says minister

- Azimazi Momoh Jimoh

THE Minister of Health, Prof. Babatunde Osotimehin, has said the Federal Government is committed to enacting laws to check and control the consumption of tobacco in the country.
Also, the Senate Committee on Health said it had perfected arrangements to ensure the passage of the National Tobacco Control Bill with a view to enthroning a regime of health safety in the country.
At an interactive session convened by sponsor of the bill, Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora, for stakeholders at the Transcorp Hotel in Abuja on Wednesday night, Osotimehin lamented the havoc done to human health by tobacco-smoking, noting that the government would do everything possible to get a law passed against tobacco consumption.
He said: "I want to tell you that I am very passionate about anti-tobacco legislation. This British-American Tobacco (BAT) people once came to talk to me on how we could work together. But I said 'no', I cannot work with BAT people because the human cost of tobacco is enormous.
"We should do everything possible to ban tobacco smoking because it does not add value at all. Some people talk about the economic value of tobacco companies, but I don't believe there is any economic value because when they employ 20,000 people, they kill 100,000. We should try as much as possible not to do things that will add to the burden we suffer from HIV. So, we will try and put our weight behind this bill".
In a remark, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, said her committee would give the bill a serious attention in view of the urgent need to rescue Nigerians from some unhealthy practices.
Citing Section 17 of the 1999 Constitution, Bello said the government owed it a primary duty to ensure the safety of its citizens, adding that this should include health safety.
Mamora, in his remark, noted that even the United States of America, which was the highest consumer of tobacco, had legislated against tobacco.
"One thing we cannot run away from is that a poison remains a poison, no matter what happens. There is no slight poison. And we are saying that tobacco is a poison", Mamora said.
Senator Jibrin Aminu on his part urged the Federal Government to simply close down all tobacco companies in the country because of their ill effects to the society.
Aminu, who said he quit smoking since 1963, advised the government not to adopt the United States' approach because, according to him, the U.S. simply increased the taxes paid by tobacco companies, a situation which he noted, would only transfer the tax burden to the consumers.
Aminu said: "I don't like that approach, we should discourage and prevent it completely. We should not be deceived by the sweet messages propagated by these tobacco companies".