In 2009, Mrs. Margaret Kwaada Julius, a 47-year-old grandmother became a tobacco advocate by chance. Stumbling on the information that, “tobacco kills half its users’’ further reinforced her resolve to dedicate quality time to sensitizing people on the harmful effects of the deadly substance on health and the environment. Presently she says, “I am a...
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...
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...
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,...
The Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) has called on the Nigerian government to do more to monitor and regulate the activities of the tobacco industry in the virtual space. It said: “While Nigeria has made some enviable strides in regulating the activities of the tobacco industry since the implementation of the National Tobacco...
The Executive Director of Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), Akinbode Oluwafemi, has underscored the need for the Nigerian Government at Federal and State levels to regulate the activities of the Tobacco Industry, especially in the virtual space. Akinbode disclosed this while highlighting CAPPA’s findings at the media presentation of a report titled ‘Tobacco...
