By Mashe Umaru Gwamna
Nigeria Tobacco Control Alliance (NTCA), have disclosed that tobacco industry’s still interference in policy making process despite the threat tobacco products pose in the health of Nigerian , especially the youth.
NTCA stated this in Abuja at a press conference on ” Stop Tobacco Industry Interference: Enforcement Graphic Health Warnings Now,saying that the inference not only undermines the effectiveness of the existing policies but also hampers efforts to introduce more stringent regulations.
To strengthen tobacco control in Nigeria, Chairman of NTCA, Akinbode Oluwafemi, said there is a crucial need to address these influences through transparent and accountable governance.
Oluwafemi, who was represented by the programme manager, Chibuike Nwokorie, called on the standard organization of Nigerian, federal ministry of health , Nigeria customs, federal competition and consumer protection commission and all other relevant agencies tasked with the enforcement of tobacco control laws need to saves Nigerians by beginning the enforcement of the graphic health warning policy without delay on all tobacco products.
According to him, “We are aware of the meetings between tobacco industry and government agencies and we want to strongly remind those agencies that the office they hold is based on pubic trust and must be used in the health interest of all Nigerians”.
He said one of these strategies is the graphic health warning policy contained in the National Tobacco Control Act of 2015 and the National Tobacco Control Regulations approved in 2019.
He noted that “According to a recent study by the Institute of Clinical Effectiveness and Health Policy in collaboration with an indigenous research group, the Centre for the Study of the Economies of Africa; a full implementation of the graphic health warnings policy will end 11,744 deaths caused by tobacco use; prevent 32,608 illnesses attributed to tobacco use and save the country N6, 745,786 million in healthcare costs annually.
“These projections reiterate the fact that graphic health warnings on tobacco packs are effective in reducing tobacco use and uptake, and that they indeed save lives,” he said.
“To monitor compliance with this critical policy, as recently as this week, we activated Alliance members in the Federal Capital Territory, also, in Ebonyi, Akwa Ibom, Nasarawa, Kano, Adamawa, and Oyo States to carry out market surveys to determine the level of compliance within their states.
“The survey also revealed that compliance on other tobacco products such as shisha, cigars, snuff, and cigarillos is almost nonexistent.
Similarly, Sub-Regional Coordinator, Campaign for Tobacco for-free kids, West Africa, Mrs Hilda Ochefu, lamented that the non implementation of tobacco control laws in the country.
She said that it is a wake up call for the federal government to ensure that all tobacco packs have the graphic health warnings.
