As in previous years, the World Health Organisation (WHO) will use today’s World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) to raise awareness about the harmful influences of the tobacco industry on young people with the theme “Protecting children from tobacco industry interference.” Unfortunately, even when smoking is still a major public health issue in the country, there are no concerted efforts to tackle the challenge. Yet, given Nigeria’s demography in which young people constitute about 70 per cent of our population, there are obvious dangers of smoking to the health of our country. The relationship between active smoking and both reduced lung function and impaired lung growth is linked to a strong tobacco habit. Therefore, Nigeria needs to focus on protecting young people from starting to smoke.

Records have shown that most smokers begin at their adolescent years, before growing into the habit to further make it difficult to curb nicotine addiction. And because these young people are heavily involved in tobacco use, the industry subsequently takes advantage of their unique position to keep them trapped with enticing adverts. In the face of such complacency which appears to insulate the tobacco industry in Nigeria and subsequently ensures that deaths related to abuse of tobacco continue to rise each passing year, we are compelled to call on the government and advocates of laws and enforcements on controlled use of tobacco to quickly reach out to each other to strengthen joint efforts on this threat to the wellbeing of Nigeria before it is too late.

While it may no longer be news that tobacco kills and harms the health of millions of Nigerians, it is also necessary to highlight that the impact of this on the health of the country has an indirect bearing on the wealth of the nation. Currently, statistics show that every year, a lot of people are killed by tobacco-related diseases. Still, many more continue to use tobacco every day, indicating a failure of the system put in place to enforce the National Tobacco Control Act 2015, enacted to curb the incessant abuse of tobacco smoking in the country.

Clearly, Nigeria has not done enough to control the abuse of tobacco by its citizens. Every day, smokers are seen at public places and building puffing out smokes from their cigarettes. New options in the form of shisha – an oriental tobacco pipe with a long flexible tube connected to a container where the smoke is cooled by passing through water, have become attractive to young Nigerians especially women. All this points to the fact that the country’s laws on smoking are ineffectual.

Because smokers need help to quit the habit, we are of the view that hard-hitting advertisements and graphic pack warnings against smoking especially at designated public places could help increase the number of people who quit smoking. We also believe that proactive mass media campaigns can also reduce smoking by convincing young people to stop using tobacco. Similarly, bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship can help reduce tobacco consumption, while heavy taxes on tobacco could help cut down the number of smokers especially amongst young Nigerians.

Until we can curtail the use of tobacco, our young people will continue to get sick, efficiency will continue to decline, and our nation will continue to lose many of its otherwise productive citizens. We must avail our young people the true perspective on smoking. We must aim at creating the environment that makes it difficult for smoking to thrive.

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