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As the
elections inch closer, the Senate last week passed a bill that will
eventually give Nigeria one of the strongest anti-tobacco laws on the
continent. Sponsored by Olorunimbe Mamora, a senator (Lagos East) on the
platform of the Action Congress of Nigeria, the bill is called the
Nigerian Tobacco Control Bill.

It’s essential components include:
raising a National Tobacco Control Committee to shape the future of
tobacco control policies and guide implementation; A comprehensive ban
on smoking in public places, and the sale of cigarettes by or to minors;
and detailed specifications on points of sale notice. That is not all,
however. The bill has finally given legal backing to a directive by the
Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) which a few years
ago banned all sorts of advertisement, sponsorship, promotion,
testimonials and brand stretching of tobacco products across the
country.

The bill is also to ensure that health
messages cover 50 per cent of the areas where tobacco products are to be
displayed, while the minister of health is empowered to prescribe
pictures or pictogram and ensure that the law is effectively
implemented. As it is now, the bill has only been passed by the Senate.
It is to be sent to the House of Representatives which will hopefully
pass it before it goes to Goodluck Jonathan for his assent. We at NEXT
do not expect the House to have any fundamental disagreement with the
version that has been passed by the Senate.

The upper house had, in the two years
the bill was with it, ensured that all the stakeholders – civil society
groups, tobacco manufacturers, health experts and the general public –
had their say at the public hearings that preceded the debates and the
passing of the bill. Mainly, the Nigeria Tobacco Control bill
domesticates the World Health Organisation (WHO) initiated Framework
Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The treaty is the first global
health treaty which is mandatory on all WHO members. Nigeria has signed
and ratified the treaty.

We commend this step by the Senate and
plead with the House not to water down this laudable bill. Passing it
into law could help this set of lawmakers become one of the most
proactive to have passed through the hallowed chambers. It is a great
contribution to public health. We make this appeal because we know that
tobacco products have for several years wreaked havoc on our people.
This is our opportunity to curb this terrible scourge.

A few years ago, some states like Lagos,
Gombe, Kano and Oyo sued some tobacco companies, asking them to pay
billions of naira for the damages their products had caused their
citizens. For instance, Lagos sued for ₦2.7 trillion claiming that
research carried out by its staff in hospitals across the state show
that at least two people die daily owing to tobacco-related diseases;
and that the state had recorded about 20 per cent increase in the
smoking rate over the past two decades with reported cases of 9,527
tobacco-related diseases in government-run hospitals monthly, in one of
Nigeria’s most populous states.

This is a high figure and a high price
to pay for a disease with a cause that is known and preventable. And
that is only for a state that has cared to carry out research on what it
costs it to treat tobacco-related diseases.

We salute the doggedness of Mr. Mamora,
the civil group Environmental Rights Action (ERA), the United States
based Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids (CTFK), the media and other groups
that fought for the enactment of this bill. However, the fight will not
simply be over because the House and the President assented to it.
Implementation of the clauses of the bill must be monitored and adhered
to. Only then would it help our public health and protect us from the
fatal tobacco-related diseases.