The group said BBNaija season 6 sparked public outrage when its participants flagrantly smoked on live television. Some Non-Governmental Organisations have called on the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to regulate Big Brother Naija (BBN) Season Seven, a popular reality television programme, to become smoke-free. The Nigeria Tobacco Control Alliance (NTCA) and Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids said this on...
A report released by the Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) yesterday (June 20) has exposed how social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are now used to flout Nigeria’s National Tobacco Control Act and its Regulations. The report detailed how companies like British American Tobacco (BAT) and Philip Morris International Nigeria Limited (PMINL)...
Tobacco diseases kill an estimated 30,000 Nigerians yearly despite government initiatives and the Tobacco Monitoring Dashboard collecting data on tobacco control and disease prevalence to help curtail its use. World Health Organisation (WHO) Country Representative Walter Molumbo expressed concern that non-communicable diseases are overtaking communicable diseases in the number of deaths they cause in Nigeria. “Close...
When we visited a 45-year-old Michael Okong’o at his rural home in Gogo village, West Kanyamkago Ward, Uriri Sub-county of Migori County, the healthy green crops were all we could see. One could hardly tell of the poor climatic condition of the area, with most lands surrounded with rock boulders. Okong’o’s home, sits at the boundary...
The warning that ‘Smokers are liable to die young’ is always ubiquitously written on the packs of most cigarettes, but to digest the message is one thing and to do it is a different matter. If those who consume tobacco products in Nigeria continue to do so at grave risk to their health, it...
The Nigeria Tobacco Control Alliance (NTCA) has decried the needless delay in operationalising the tobacco control fund. The alliance, therefore urged the Federal Government to as a matter of urgency operationalise the tobacco control fund in the interest of Nigerians and their safety. The group made the call at a briefing in Abuja with the theme:...
The decision of the Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) to call out SmokeBoxNG and DaSmokeHub, two popular tobacco vendors for marketing tobacco products on social media, has put tobacco industry activities in Nigeria on the spotlight again. Both organisations, operating from Lagos and Abuja, were called out in CAPPA’s “Report on Tobacco Industry Capture of the Virtual...
The minister quoted the 6th edition of Tobacco Atlas, which estimates that more than 26,800 annual deaths occur from tobacco-related diseases in Nigeria. Nigeria’s Minister of State for Health, Olorunnimbe Mamora, has said the government increased tax on cigarettes from 20 to 30 per cent in June to dissuade Nigerians from tobacco consumption. The minister disclosed...
Cigarette smuggling has emerged as one of the most lucrative enterprises between Zimbabwe and South Africa, with border authorities seizing contraband worth millions of dollars in recent years. Last month, South African police confiscated cigarettes worth ZAR1,7 million (about USD105,000) from Zimbabwean smugglers who have taken advantage of porous border controls between the two southern African countries...
THE NIGERIAN government has launched a dashboard to monitor tobacco products as part of efforts to combat smoking in the country. The Tobacco Control Data Initiative (TCDI) dashboard is a virtual (web-based) dashboard that provides all data on tobacco products, including information on prevalence, taxation, harm, illicit trade as well as industry interference in tobacco use,...
