Keep your promise to tackle tobacco menace, NTCA tells Tinubu
NTCA want President Tinubu to tackle the menace of Tobacco in the country.
Says 25 million Nigerians starving due to tobacco farming
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been enjoined to live up to his campaign promises on tackling the menace associated with the usage of Tobacco in the polity.
The Chairman Nigeria Tobacco Control Alliance (NTCA), Mr Akinbode Oluwafemi made the call at a news conference yesterday in Abuja to mark the 2023 World No Tobacco Day.
Oluwafemi argued that the call was based on President Tinubu’s “Hope Renewal” campaign promises to Nigerians, particularly on the health sector as it relates to the hazards associated to the use of Tobacco products.
Tinubu, in page 46 of his manifesto promised to ensure that consumption taxes on alcohol and tobacco products will be dedicated to fund healthcare services.
Besides, he pledged that such taxes shall also work to deter behaviour that undermines individual and community health.
Oluwafemi who recalled how in 2007 Tinubu, then as Governor instituted a cost recovery measure against Tobacco firms in Lagos state, expressd optimism that he would put in place measures to safequard Nigerians from the devastating effects of tobacco usage.
Expressing concern over the death of over 8 million people worldwide due to consumption of Tobacco, he disclosed that over 25 million Nigerians are facing hunger because large portions of arable lands are turned into barren wastelands from tobacco cultivation.
Calling on the federal ministry of Agriculture an rural development to make known the extent of tobacco farming in Nigeria, he stressed the need for the ministry to roll out plans to help tobacco farmers transition to nutritious and healthy crops such as maize, cassava, guinea corn and even livestock.
