CAPPA deplores nation’s slide in tobacco interference ranking

Corporate Accountability and Policy Participation Africa (CAPPA) has decried the country’s slide from 53 to 60 in tobacco interference ranking.

Its Executive Director, Akinbode Oluwafemi, who spoke at the launch of the group’s report entitled, ‘Tobacco Industry Interference Index 2023’ in Lagos, observed that tobacco companies were subtly selling their ‘poisonous’ products through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes.

Oluwafemi cited British American Tobacco Nigeria Foundation’s (BATN) partnership with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to empower young farmers, which constantly exposes the youths to the company and its products.

CAPPA berated Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abass, for his recent “You are welcome home” comment to his former employers, BATN, when the firm visited him in Abuja.

According to the group, the comment meant that, instead of encouraging laws to eradicate tobacco use in the country, the Speaker was endorsing the company and its activities.

Reviewing the report, the Project Research Officer, Zikora Ibeh, said one of the issues that fuelled the study was weak enforcement of preventive measures, including ambiguities in the National Tobacco Control Act (NTCA) 2015 and its Regulations of 2019.

These challenges, she said, inadvertently allow the tobacco industry to operate without accountability in certain instances.

She added:  “For instance, while the NTCA mandates the tobacco industry to submit yearly reports on tobacco and tobacco products, it also retains that the minister may choose to either disclose or withhold this information from the public. This optional transparency makes it difficult for public health advocates to verify whether compliance is being enforced or not.”