BEVERLY HILLS, September 24, (THEWILL) – A bill for an act to repeal the Tobacco (Control) Bill and to enact the National Tobacco Control Bill to provide for the regulation or control of production, manufacture, sale, advertising, promotion and sponsorship of tobacco or tobacco products in Nigeria scaled the crucial second reading in the Senate on Wednesday.
The Bill seeks to regulate and control the use of tobacco and exposure to tobacco smoke in order to protect the health of the Nigerian public.
The bill was consequently referred to the committee on health for further legislative work and is expected back in plenary in the next four weeks.
Leading the debate, Chairman Senate Committee on Health, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa (PDP, Delta), lamented that tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death globally and its use kills nearly six million people annually.
He also raised the alarm, saying that research shows that exposure to second hand smoke during childhood causes irreversible damage to children arteries and increases their risk of heart attacks or stroke when they grow up.
“The bill also seeks for protection of present and future generation from the devastating heath, social, economic and environmental consequences of tobacco use and exposure to tobacco smoke,” he told the senators.
Senators were however divided on whether there should be total ban of tobacco use or the regulation of its use.
In his contribution, Senate Leader Victor Ndoma- Egba ( SAN) said; “In spite of the dangers of tobacco, we have to deal with the use of tobacco in such a regulated manner that it doesn’t create any economic distortion because if we don’t address the economic issues properly, then we will end up with more of smuggled tobacco that is unregulated and our own tobacco industry here will become un-protective.
“So when it gets to public hearing, I want to urge the relevant committees to balance the health issues with the economic issues”, he said.
Senator James Manager in his submission said: “This is a very harmless bill about something that is very harmful to human health. I used to wonder why the world is shying away from banning tobacco. Instead, they are advertising it.
“We should not talk of the economic benefit of something that is harmful to human health because you need to be alive for you to enjoy economic benefit of something. Tobacco consumption is supposed to be banned. This tobacco, I don’t know how it tastes, by the grace of God, Mr. President, I have never attempted to smoke it and I don’t want to know.”
Closing the debate, the Senate President, David Mark, advised that banning the use of tobacco should be left for the public to decide
According to him, “The essence of the Bill is to highlight the dangers inherent in smoking and it also seeks to regulate advertisement about smoking. We have gone one step further to want to ban it also but when it goes to public hearing then we will get public opinion on that.
“When it goes to public hearing, they will tell you whether people should really be allowed to walk to hell or we should restrain them from walking to hell. But the dangers inherent in smoking are very obvious and I think that at the end of the day, we would be able to get feelers from the general public.
“My prayer is that this time around, once we pass this Bill, I hope that it will be signed because we were just left hanging at the moment. It is neither here nor there. Nothing has been done. Hopefully this time around, the executive would be able to sign it. Those who would determine will be the general public – Nigerians – but let me remind us also that this Bill is not just a Nigerian Bill.
“It is far more important because there are a lot of countries that have tried to debate the issue of total ban on cigarette and smoking. Powerful groups are behind the Bill and I remember that in the Sixth Senate, a lot of lobbyists were all over the place when this Bill was being debated.
“So I am not surprised that we eventually didn’t sign it but we should have courage to at least do something. I don’t think we should just leave it that way this time around.”
EMMA UCHE, ABUJA
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