The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, used the opportunity of the 2018 World No Tobacco Day to draw the nation’s attention to the fact that Nigerians consume more than 20 billion sticks of cigarettes every year. He also disclosed that 45 million adults in the country currently use tobacco products. Worse, 82 per cent of the entire population is exposed to second-hand smoking. In other words, such a huge segment of the population is involuntarily subjected to the effects of smoking owing to being exposed to smoke when visiting bars and night clubs. A smaller percentage of 29.3 (6.4 million) goes through a similar experience when visiting restaurants.
The minister also announced that Nigeria was on its way to ratifying the protocol to eliminate illicit trade in tobacco products and that the memorandum on the protocol was approved by the Federal Executive Council on May 23, 2018. Prof. Adewole further stated that his ministry and the Federal Ministry of Finance were collaborating to establish an automated system for tracking and tracing tobacco products with the aim of preventing revenue leakages and curtailing illicit trade in tobacco products.
We observe the government’s seeming ambivalence, conflicted as it is, on whether to emphasise the health risks or the pursuance of revenue. This has been the fundamental dilemma of mankind over cigarettes. Health authorities would readily tick off 10 types of killer diseases that directly result from cigarette-smoking; and then look the other way, hooked, as the government tends to be, on the enormous revenue accruing from the tobacco industry and its rich lobby.
But we cannot minimise the consequences of Nigeria smoking 20 billion cigarettes a year. It signals that the country has a tobacco problem. It also means that, in effect, the per capita consumption is about 12,000 cigarettes. It is tempting to underrate the 45 million regular active smokers as being a small number, under 33 per cent. It is easy to forget the fate of the passive smokers who are equally at risk and whose health conditions are, indeed, exacerbated if they had issues from asthma through chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) to cataracts and diabetes.
Smokers have tended to persist in their habits and although the number of smokers is reducing, its reduction is in trickles. It is one of the tobacco imponderables that in spite of the known risks, people continue to feed such a risky and dangerous habit. Efforts to discourage the habit include the ban on smoking in public places. But that health-saving regulation seems to be observed more in the breach. There is no evidence that our law enforcement officials even attempt to enforce the rule. The population seems not to care whether it is enforced or not.
In spite of the ban of cigarette advertising on television and colour magazines which was done to reduce the injurious messages and images, young people continue to glamorise smoking, a habit that truly endangers life. In addition to the diseases, bad breath and burnt lips, the malodorous stench emitted by smokers is often so disgusting as to be truly objectionable.
We urge parents to begin early to warn their children not to contract the habit. Teachers should be vigilant and watch out for children who smoke in schools. Above all, the government should regularly embark on public enlightenment to remind people of the dangers of smoking. It should also enforce the law against smoking in public places and emphasise the grave dangers of passive smoking which seems not to be well understood by most Nigerians.