Nigeria To Employ Stricter Measures Against Tobacco

In 2004, Nigeria along with other nations of the world signed the World Health Organisation (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, FCTC.

The objectives were to ensure tobacco free environment for their citizens, promote healthy lifestyle and productivity.

According to WHO, smoking kills six million people globally every year and if this trend persist, by 2030, the annual death toll from smoking will climb to more than eight million.

WHO also predicted that smoking will have taken 1,000,000,000 lives by the end of the 21st century.

In order to address this problem, over 190 countries have so far domesticated the 2004 FCTC and banned smoking in public places.

Brazil is one of them. Since 15 December 2011, Brazil Federal Law 12546 (Article 49) forbids smoking in public spaces in the entire country, including restaurants and bars.

Similarly in Bulgaria, a comprehensive smoking ban has been introduced prohibiting smoking in all public places including bars, restaurants, clubs, workplaces, stadiums, etc. It came into effect on 1 June 2012.

However, ten years after Nigeria signed the FCTC, government couldn’t pass the law due to several amendments to the Bill by National Assembly.

The Federal Government is however ensuring the Bill is passed into law.

Investigations conducted by Financial Vanguard, showed that when the Bill is eventually passed into law, the operating environment might not be easy for tobacco companies in the country, let alone smokers.

Financial Vanguard gathered that for defaulting companies, the fine varies from N1 million to as much as N5 million while imprisonment of the Chief Executives of offending companies vary from one year to two years if they break the law.

Whereas for individual, that is a smoker who goes to a place clearly designated non- smoking area, the fine is N50, 000 or imprisonment of up to six months.

 Lagos state said it was expending over N2billion on tobacco patients. The state government carried out the survey in 11 state-owned hospitals and that there were over 9,000 patients and each was gulping N222, 000 from tax payers’ money plus another N70, 000 that the patients themselves must expend. That was 2006 and that is only Lagos State. If we replicate this across the federation then you can imagine the trillions of naira this country is spending on patients with tobacco related sickness,” he said.