Reps say tobacco bill not intended to ban smoking in Nigeria

The House of Representatives’ Committee on Health on Wednesday in Abuja received contributions from Nigerian stakeholders on the Tobacco Smoking Bill with the speaker of the House, Aminu Tambuwal, assuring that the bill is not targeted at banning smoking in Nigeria.

The speaker, who was represented by the chief whip, Isiaka Bawa, at the public hearing on tobacco and other 10 bills said the bills when passed will assist to address the health issues in the country.

The chairman of the committee on health, Ndudi Elumelu, who spoke in the same vein, described the bills as intervention in the health sector.
He said that the public hearing is to feel the pulse of the public on the issues “since no one has monopoly of knowledge. It is for us to listen to Nigerians and get their input as we are not determined to impose any inclusion in all the provisions as provided in all the bills. It is what you give to us in this public hearing that will form part of what we will submit at the plenary session,” he said.

At the public hearing, most of the speakers welcomed the bill but wanted amendment on areas especially sections that tend to stifle the tobacco industry and save the industry and its aligned businesses. They want regulations that will meet international standard.

A representative of BATN, Sola Dosunmu, welcomed the public hearing initiative as he said that it is part of the tobacco control bill in Nigeria. “It is a good thing for the industry to be regulated so that we the operators in the tobacco business will know how to distribute, promote and advertise the products.”

He said some provisions in the bill are not clear as they can lead to some consequences for the tobacco industry and the economy.

“What the committee tries to do is not to ban tobacco smoking but to put a framework in place so that we can operate effectively”.

The session, he said, was open as it reflects the level of democracy and the level of openness of the National Assembly and we believe that what will come out of the session will be productive and effective and will benefit Nigerian citizens and the investors.

In his view, Olusegun Sofola of Initiative for Public Policy Analysis, said to regulate the industry is good but for him, the regulation must be balanced and cater for all industries within the sector, the smokers as well as non-smokers.

“As we desire to regulate the smoking aspect of it, we must also see that we actually see that the bill is not disadvantageous to a particular set because that will lead to a lot of unintended consequences”.

He believes that the bill as drafted was a little bit hard on the industry.

“If that bill is passed as it is, there is every tendency that the bill will not be effective because it did not address the supply and demand issue. Tobacco is not only on health issue, there is also economic side to it. If it is stopped from the supply side and once the demand is there, there would be challenge of smuggling and capital flight.”