approved the draft National Tobacco Control
Bill 2004 that will be sent to the National
Assembly as an Executive Bill for
promulgation into law.
The Bill recommends a minimum of six
months imprisonment or N50,000 or both for
individuals that smoke outside public places
designated as smoking areas.
Minister of Information, Mr. Laban Maku; and
the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi
Chukwu, disclosed this to State House
correspondents at the end of the meeting
presided over by President Goodluck
Jonathan.
Chukwu said the penalties for corporate
offenders varied from N1million to N5million
and one year to two years imprisonment for
the chief executives of such firms.
The minister added that all forms of
advertisement of tobacco is totally banned
under the proposed law.
He added that while the law forbids
government from accepting gifts from
tobacco firms, it also bans the firms from
sponsoring any public event.
When it finally becomes a law, he said 50 per
cent of the packaging of tobacco is expected
to be used to warn the public of the risks
involved in smoking.
Chukwu said the government would set up a
standing committee that would assist law
enforcement agencies in implementing the
law.
He said the present administration decided to
work on the Bill because the provisions of a
similar one passed into law in 2001 were
considered to be weak.
He listed some of the diseases linked to
smoking to include cardiovascular diseases
such as heart attack and stroke; cancer,
especially that of the lung; as well as chronic
respiratory disorder.
He recalled that a Global Youth Tobacco
Survey conducted in 2008 showed that 15 per
cent of children between 13 years and 15
years are already smoking and another
percentage exposed as passive smokers.
He said the Global Adult Tobacco Survey on
its part showed that 10 percent of men in
Nigeria smoke while 1.1 percent women
smoke.
This, he explained, showed that almost six per
cent of adults in Nigeria smoke.
He said, "This is not the first attempt in
Nigeria to control the use of tobacco in this
country. In 1990 we had a decree which tried
to place some control on the sale and use of
tobacco products and in 2001, it was repealed
and re-enacted to become the National
Tobacco Control Act of 2001.
"The whole idea is to make it stiffer, but when
in 2004, Nigeria along with other nations of
the world signed the 2004 WHO framework
convention on tobacco control, there was
then the need to bring our laws in conformity
because we actually as a country ratified that
convention the next year which was 2005.
"So that attempt by the Executive will
eventually culminate in the passage of a
revised or amended Act as it were in 2011 by
the sixth session of the National Assembly.
"The bill is to protect Nigerians against the
harmful effects of tobacco. We know that
tobacco is dangerous, tobacco is the cause of
many deaths and it causes so many illnesses."
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