From Mika’il Tsoho, Dutse
As part of effort to save thousands lives of youths, a non governmental Organization known as Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) with support from Tax Justice Network Africa, has called on Jigawa State government to domesticate National laws and policies on tobacco usage into Jigawa context to save lives of its citizens.
The call was made by the CISLAC Executive Director, Auwal Ibrahim Musa Rafsanjani, while delivering his remarks at one day stakeholders engagement at three star hotel Dutse.
The CISLAC Executive Director who was represented by Muhammad Murtala , explained that, as Nigeria continues to sustain tobacco control efforts in the country, there is need to expand the advocacy down to Jigawa state to save lives of thousands of youths in the state.
Rafsanjani who said, the use of tobacco remains one of the leading cause of deaths, insisted that advocating for effective tobacco tax systems could help to reduce the consumption of tobbaco in Jigawa state.
“Tobacco use remains the leading cause of death resulting from non communicable diseases (NCDs) as tobacco use is directly linked to high burden of cancer, heart diseases and stroke. There are around 1.1 billion smokers worldwide and about 80% of these live in lowand middle income countries (LMICs), where
more than two thirds of smoking related deaths occur.
“Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and has one of the leading tobacco markets in Africa, with over 18 billion cigarettes sold annually. The WHO estimated
about 13 million smokers in Nigeria in 2012, with over 16,000 deaths attributable to smoking”, he said.
He identified some tobacco control measures, as WHO FCTC recognizes tax and price measure as the most cost effective tool for tobacco control as it reduces affordability especially among lowincome earners and reduces initiation of children to smoking.
According to him, this tobacco control measure is also described as a win-win tool for public health and government revenue as it contributes to reduction of tobacco affordability while improving government revenue generation.
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