Daniel Kanu
The grand finale of the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) Tobacco Control Rap Challenge held at the weekend in Lagos.
The competition which started on September 2, 2019, was targeted at creating awareness on the enforcement of the National Tobacco Control (NTC) Act 2015 and Tobacco Regulations to the youths through a music competition tagged #TCRapChallenge and #EnforceTCRegNow.
Our correspondent cornered seasoned the head, media and campaign manager of the organisation, Mr. Philip Jakpor, and asked him to throw more light on the matter and tobacco-related issues and youth involvement among others.
Excerpts:
Last weekend Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) rewarded finalists in its Tobacco Control Rap Challenge. What was that event about?
The tobacco control rap competition is our way of pushing back the tobacco industry which has for years exploited and manipulated our youths through its deception marketing gimmicks. As you know, through its internal documents and open statements, the youths represent the biggest potential market for the industry and they want to assume the youths are gullible and can become replace- smokers-for-the-dying-generation and current smokers. It is unfortunate. It is for this reason that we have equally targeted this age bracket for education and conscription into the war against tobacco use. We are very proud of the creativity that we observed in the nearly 400 entries and the finalists who got the prizes as an encouragement to do more.
Your message on the dangers of tobacco has been more noticeable in the last few weeks. Is there any particular reason for this?
The Yuletide is the season that we have the most parties, concerts, shows, etc. Manufacturers of consumer goods love this season for a different reason because it is a season they exploit maximally to push new products to the consumers. The tobacco industry is not left out too. Our findings for years have shown that they use this season to get innocent and unsuspecting youths addicted to their lethal products.
In the recent past, there were secret smoking parties in Lagos, Abuja and elsewhere across the federation where new smokers were recruited. One thing we should always keep in mind is that the tobacco industry is an ingenious industry always innovating on how to remain in the addiction business. That is why we are monitoring what they are doing this season to alert the unsuspecting public and the government which has the onerous task of checking their excesses.
In the US and western countries, we also read about vaping deaths. Is it likely they will happen here too?
The vaping deaths did not come to us as a surprise because the products are from the same industry that for years hid the truth about tobacco to us.
In the US, the UK and elsewhere vaping-related deaths occur, same for hospitalisations related to some of the chemicals in the products. The ease of access to the internet where almost anything can be purchased makes Nigeria vulnerable to similar occurrences.
As you know, Nigeria is the largest market for the tobacco industry in Africa and we have a huge number of youths that are abreast of current global trends. That is why we have called on the federal government to ban e-cigarettes, Shisha, and other so-called less harmful products that are turning out to be as lethal as cigarettes.
Not much has been heard about the implementation of the National Tobacco Control Law. What is happening at the federal level?
It is unfortunate that seven months after the last National Assembly approved the National Tobacco Control Regulations 2019, the federal government is yet to gazette it. We are perplexed about this delay because as we all know, the delay is dangerous. Every minute counts. Lives are at stake. Between May when the law was passed and now, the tobacco industry has been very busy entrenching its hold on our systems and especially ingratiating themselves with public officials in key sectors of the economy. In October, 2019, one of them was everywhere talking Strategic Development Goals (SDG) and how it can boost agriculture in Nigeria. Is that not strange? It even partnered the Lagos State government in organising a Food Fair where farm produce were packaged in its colours and logo. In these subtle ways, it tries to portray itself as a stakeholder when in actual fact its major product – tobacco, unleashes death and destruction. That’s why we have voiced our concern about the delay in the gazetting of the tobacco regulation.
Giving Nigerians a gazette of the regulation as a Christmas or end of the year gift is not a bad idea.
Do you suspect the tobacco industry has a hand in the delay?
Nothing is impossible but we hope not. The tobacco industry will do anything to frustrate regulating its. In other climes, we have even seen the industry go to court to ensure that it is left to its lethal business which is a multi-billion dollar. We are watching and we expect the federal government to know that the whole world and particularly other African governments are watching how we go about with the implementation of the National Tobacco Control Act and the Regulations when they are finally gazetted. We expect that the same enthusiasm that the National Assembly put into passing the regulations should be deployed into this so that agencies like the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Council (FCCPC) will be emboldened to begin speedy enforcement. Time is of the essence.