Nigeria: Anti-smoking Bill: Stakeholders Caution Lawmakers

Source from:  The Guardian (Lagos, Nigeria)  05/20/2013

PRO-TOBACCO campaigners and labour groups have urged the Lagos State House of Assembly to exercise caution in its debate on a bill banning cigarette smoking in schools, hotels, bars, nightclubs and other public places.　

The group, comprising manufacturers, tobacco-product distributors, hotels and bar owners, the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the Manufacturer Association of Nigeria (MAN), are worried that a blanket-ban on smoking would lead to huge loss of revenue and worsen the unemployment situation in Lagos State.

Their plea was in reaction to argument by group seeking stiff provisions that outlaw tobacco-related products and declare the state smoke-free environment.

Representative of tobacco-product distributors in the state, Mrs. Mojisola Awo, commended the lawmakers for the move to ban smoking in schools and crèches. She, however, said the ban would have negative multiplier effect on the economy if extended beyond schools.

According to Awo, the government will lose about $1million yearly revenue the tobacco industry generates while many people will be threw into the labour market.

Assistant Secretary General of TUC, Mr. Anthony Ibafor, said the congress was against the bill as it would, on the long run, lead to unemployment.

Also, representatives of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), restaurants, bars and café owners all argued that the law would, if not amended, have a negative impact on their businesses and lead to mass unemployment. They tasked the legislators to include designated smoking areas in the bill while giving them ample time to design 'no-smoking' signs.

Head of Regulatory Affairs, British American Tobacco Nigeria (BATN), Mr Sola Dosunmu said the company, as usual, supports appropriate regulation of tobacco smoking and that it would cooperate with government agencies towards in ensuring that relevant laws are enforced.

Dosunmu, however, said the proposed law must not force legal businesses out of operation, as such would leave fuel smuggling and illicit trading on the items. He noted that statistics have shown that complete smoking ban have no impact on smoking and that in some cases consumption among adults rather increases.

The anti-tobacco campaigners, led by the Nigerian Tobacco Control Alliance, a group made up of 40 civil society organisations and environmental right activists, faulted the bill as too-soft to address tobacco-induced injuries on secondary smokers in the state.

The bill contains the regulation of smoking in designated places. It was sponsored by Gbolahan Yishawu, representative of Eti-Osa II Constituency. The bill is awaiting a third reading at House.

The 13-paragraph bill has a schedule of 18 items, indicating designated areas categorised as no-smoking areas. The smoke-prohibited areas are premises that are being used wholly or principally as a place of work, restaurants, bar and nightclubs, shops and shopping centres, hotels, libraries, archives, museums, galleries and other premises used for entertainments.

Others are halls;, conference centres, public toilets, factories, educational institution premises, healthcare premises, crèches, day care centres of children and adults, call centres, public transports, stadia and lifts.

The lawmaker, Yishawu, at a recent public hearing said the bill was aimed at safeguarding health of the people against tobacco-related diseases and not to kill tobacco industry, stop sales or throw people out of jobs. Enditem