GATS Report and Tobacco Use in Nigeria

Recently, a report by Global Audit on Tobacco Survey (GATS) indicated that incidence of tobacco use in Nigeria is low, a report that may not go down well with the civil society groups that campaigned against tobacco smoking, advertisement and production.

Tobacco smoking in various parts of the world had been a topical issue leading to its ban in some public places in many parts of the world.

Not until recently, the Lagos State House of Assembly proposed the Non-Tobacco Smoking Bill, which seeks a total ban on smoking in public places.

The Bill, however, did not get the nod of the Trade Union Congress, TUC, led By Mr. Anthony Ibafor, representative of hotel and club owners and tobacco distributors, who argued that the Bill would lead to unemployment, if tobacco smoking was totally banned. Reacting to the proposed bill, the Head of Regulatory Affairs of British American Tobacco of Nigeria (BATN), Mr. Sola Dosumu, expressed the company's support for the passage of a balanced and evidence-based Bill for the industry. He also stated that it was in the interest of stakeholders to ensure the passage of a balanced, workable and evidence-based Bill, adding that it would help to reduce the impact of tobacco on public health in the country. Dosumu went further to say that BATN had always supported appropriate regulation for the industry in Nigeria and had co-operated and collaborated with government agencies towards ensuring that existing regulations were enforced. On the other hand, Representative of Nigeria Tobacco Control Alliance and other CSOs, Nurudeen Ogbara, sought for total ban of tobacco smoking in the public.

Today, GATS report has lent credence to Dosumu's views as a cardinal factor of modern life, which is the adoption of constitutions by nations of the world and one of the reasons for adopting same is to put in proper perspective ways and manners of peaceful co-existence among the citizens of the particular country. One basic inclusion in such constitution is human rights and freedom of choice. Even though those rights are enshrined in the constitution, the authors are mindful of the need to restrict the exercise of those rights to persons of certain age and above. One of such rights is the universal adult suffrage, which empowers adults of 18 years old and above the right to vote in an election so long as the person is of sound of mind. This is premised on the thought that at 18, and barring any mental deficiency, the person is capable of making an informed and reasonable judgment. The same is the issue of alcoholic beverage and tobacco consumption in many countries, Nigeria inclusive. If the report of the survey is right that "Nigeria has a relatively low rate of tobacco smoking compared to other countries, then we must safe guard this by having the appropriate laws that is suited to our local context in place and not simply copy one that will cause more problem in the country. Given Nigeria's peculiarity, coupled with the physiological make up of the human mind to crave that which is shrouded in mystery, the chances that over flogging the issue, as some anti-tobacco campaigners are clamouring for are high. In order not to regress in the tobacco use roll back campaign, anti-tobacco use advocates and the government in particular should thread softly, Mr. Tomiwa Alegusi, a tobacco distributor, said.

The reality of the modern world is that stringent laws inexplicably grow interests in the particular habit that it seeks to discourage. The more the law around a practice gets stringent, the more the curiosity around it grows, leading to increased indulgence in the act. We should be mindful of this in formulating more stringent anti-tobacco legislation. While the push for public health must be sought, we should, however, avoid sensationalism for the sake of advocacy. It is also pertinent to do a reality check on the anti-tobacco measures and laws that several countries have adopted over the years with a view to ascertain if they are achieving results or not. Arguably, countries that have adopted harsh regulations as anti-tobacco laws are feeling the effect of increased tobacco smuggling leading to astronomical rise in the sales and purchase of illegal products and funding of criminal groups. Among such countries are Ireland, Canada and South Africa. On the other hand, countries that have adopted moderate laws which are well balanced and applicable and enforceable locally have little incidence of smuggling, examples are Ghana and Russia.

Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201307290456.html