Nigeria: Anti-Tobacco Advocates Target December Deadline for Passage of Tobacco Bill

Source from:  Premium Times  08/20/2013

Anti-tobacco advocates have expressed optimism that the Nigeria Tobacco Control Bill, which is presently before the National Assembly, would be passed before December this year.

At a forum in Lagos, Friday, the stakeholders said President Goodluck Jonathan had also indicated his willingness to sign the bill into law.

"We want this bill passed before December, we want the President to sign it before December, so we need to bring up a multi stakeholder assemblage of people of Nigerian citizens and of opinions to support this process," said Akinbode Oluwafemi of Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria.

"We want to believe that from what we are getting from President Goodluck Jonathan, from what we are getting from the parliament, we are upbeat now that we are going to get this right this time," Mr. Oluwafemi added.

Currently, two tobacco control bills are before the National Assembly - a bill for the regulation of tobacco products before the House of Representatives and a bill to provide a framework for the control of the production of tobacco products before the Senate.

Both bills have passed the second and first readings respectively.

"What we are pushing for is a law that will protect the health of Nigerians," said Hilda Ochefu, West Africa Sub-Regional Coordinator for Campaign For Tobacco Free Kids.

"This is about regulating the tobacco industry, it is not about sending them out of business in Nigeria. It is about making sure that the number of deaths and diseases from tobacco use is reduced," she added.

Tobacco use kills nearly six million people each year, and more than 600,000 of these people are exposed to second hand smoke, according to the World Health Organization.

At least, two per cent of all deaths of men in Nigeria are related to tobacco use, a 2012 Tobacco Atlas study, one of the world's most comprehensive analysis of tobacco related deaths, showed.

The 2009 National Tobacco Control Bill received a fatal blow after it passed through the sixth National Assembly but President Jonathan failed to sign it into law.

Gbenga Adejuwon, Secretary, Nigeria Tobacco Control Alliance, said that the "mistakes" of the last tobacco control bill would not be repeated.

"The health of the nation is in a big jeopardy if Mr. President does not assent to this bill again," Mr. Adejuwon said.

"But we are very confident in our president, we know that technical issues have been sorted out and Mr. President had actually declared publicly that the bill is a major concern to the executive and shall definitely be assented to.

"So we want to hold Mr. President to his world, the bill is not going to suffer acceptance from the executive any longer," Mr. Adejuwon added. Enditem