By Mashe Umaru Gwamna
The Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA),has thanked the former minister of state health Sen. Olorunnimbe Mamora for sponsoring the National Tobacco Control Bill during his tenure as a minister.
The Executive Director of CAPPA, Akinbode Oluwafemi, gave the commendation recently during ”a Thank You Dinner” in honour of Mamora in Abuja.
Oluwafemi noted that CAPPA and the Coalition Against Tobacco (CAT) supported Mamora to raise the bill on tobacco control during the sixth National Assembly.
According to Oluwafemi, though the process of passage of the Tobacco Bill was stalled in the Sixth Assembly.
“ Senator Mamora still played behind the scenes roles which culminated in the bill becoming an Act in 2015 under the Seventh Assembly”.
CAPPA’s Director conferred the award for Lifetime Commitment to Public Health on Mamora, expressing appreciation to him for the role he played in passage of the National Tobacco Control Act (NTCA). He called on public office holders and other highly placed Nigerians to emulate Mamora by entrenching positive change in the country.
Responding the former minister of state for health, Senator Adeleke Mamora, who expressed his gratitude and happiness towards the gesture of CAPPAand CAT .
He shared his experiences during a ‘Thank you dinner, described the experience of the efforts to pass the Bill as a tough battle.
He said “When I sponsored that Bill on tobacco ….It was a tough battle, you all know that over world tobacco manufacturers or tobacco industry have a very powerful lobby group. So there was an attempt to scuttle that Bill. So it was a strong battle but by the grace of God we succeeded in pushing it through, and it was passed by the Senate, and we had concurrent from the House of Representatives.
“Unfortunately before I left the Senate in 2011, the Bill could not be assented to become a law. But good enough the 7th Senate where the immediate passed governor of Delt State was a senator then, took it over as Chairman Senate committee on health, and as they say the rest is history. The important thing is that we now have that tobacco control Act” he said.
In his remarks, World Health Organisation Country Representative in Nigeria,Dr. Walter Mulombo, recalled his encounter with Senator Mamora stating that as the Minister of State Health, the former Senator made his job easy.
Meanwhile, In attendance at the event was, Former SGF Boss Mustapha, former Senate Leader, Senator, Ndoma Egba, Special Adviser to President Ahmed Bola Tinubu on Health, Dr Mrs. Salma Ibrahim Anas.
Others are former Minister Of Women Affairs, Pauline Tallen, former Senators and House of Representatives members among other dignitaries.
