At World No Tobacco Day, activists urge FG to establish control fund

By : Edu Abade

Date: 2 June 2018 5:19am WAT

A picture taken on September 29, 2017 shows a close up shot of a man lighting a cigarette in Kuwait City. On October 1, 2017, the United Arab Emirates will double the price of tobacco and increase soft drink prices by 50 percent, ahead of a more general tax on goods and services on January 1 next year. It is but one of the six Gulf Cooperation Council states -- along with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar -- to introduce the five-percent VAT next year as they seek to redress their economies. / AFP PHOTO / Yasser Al-Zayyat

Civil society organisations (CSOs) and student groups have charged the Federal Government to establish a Tobacco Control Fund as a way of marking the World No Tobacco Day (WNTD), which holds on May 31 yearly.

They rallied in major streets of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja and Lagos, demanding government’s enforcement of the ban on smoking in public places, among other provisions of the National Tobacco Control (NTC) Act, which was signed into law in 2015. Groups like the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), Cedars Foundation, Gatefield, Smoke-free Club UniAbuja and other youth groups attended the rally, which held at the behest of the Ministry of Health and the Nigeria Tobacco Control Alliance (NTCA).

Before the kick-off of the march, Malau Toma of the ministry of health explained that the thrust of the exercise was to sensitise members of the public on the dangers of tobacco smoking and solicit their support for the NTC Act. He also explained that the theme of the 2018 WNTD: Tobacco And Heart Disease, made it imperative to also make the public realise the dangers of second-hand smoke, which the World Health Organisation (WHO) blamed for 600,000 deaths yearly.

The provisions announced include ban on smoking in public places, restriction on underage access and ban of sales in single sticks, among others.