The Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) has called for the enforcement of the National Tobacco Control Act 2015 and the National Tobacco Regulation 2019 to safeguard the nation’s children from the dangers of tobacco addiction and its significant health impacts.
CAPPA in a press release signed by its Communications Officer, Robert Egbe made the call in commemoration of World No Tobacco Day 2024 with the theme: “Protecting Children from Tobacco Industry Interference.”
Highlighting the ongoing threat, CAPPA cited the World Health Organization (WHO), which reported that in 2022, at least 37 million adolescents aged 13 to 15 globally used some form of tobacco. The tobacco industry has increasingly targeted youth with new products, such as electronic cigarettes and shisha.
The Executive Director of CAPPA, Akinbode Oluwafemi stressed the importance of enforcing the Tobacco Act’s provisions that protect youth, including bans on tobacco advertising, sponsorship, and promotion, as well as prohibitions on the sale of tobacco to minors and maintaining smoke-free public spaces.
“With growing evidence showing that the tobacco industry deliberately targets our youths, the Nigerian government must intensify efforts for diligent enforcement of the Tobacco Act, particularly sections that protect initiation and the health of young ones.
“Those provisions in the Tobacco Act that are targeted at protecting the youth include the ban of tobacco advertisement sponsorship and promotion, ban on the sale of tobacco to, or by minors, and smoke-free public places, among others.
“Apart from those measures, there is also the need to raise tobacco taxes so they are priced beyond the reach of our children and the ban of the sale of tobacco products arounds schools and educational institutions,” Oluwafemi added.
CAPPA also commended the Nigerian Films and Censors Board (NFVCB) for its recent regulation aimed at eliminating the glamorization of smoking in movies, adding that “Our children deserve healthy, smoke-free screens.”