NHF, UNAN collaborate to promote tobacco control

In a bid to control the use of tobacco in country, the Nigeria Heart Foundation (NHF) and the United Nations Association of Nigeria (UNAN) are organising an essay competition for secondary school students in Nigeria on the danger of smoking.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), tobacco kills more than seven million people each year globally, with six million of them from direct use and the others are due to the exposure of smoking.

“Despite Nigeria making progress on tobacco control in recent years, people continue to die and become sick needlessly, and the costs to society from tobacco use continue to mount” said Olufemi Mobolaji-Lawal, chairman-executive council, Nigerian Heart Foundation.

“We believe Nigeria can still do more to make the proven tobacco control tools work for its citizens’ wellbeing and this is defining concept for the essay competition,” Mobolaji-Lawal said.

Yearly, May 31st is being set aside to mark the ‘World No Tobacco Day’ sponsored by WHO, to highlight health risks associated with tobacco use and encourage governments to adopt effective policies to reduce smoking, smokeless tobacco and other form of uses.

To mark this year World No Tobacco Day, NHF and UNAN have organised an essay competition for students across the country.

“As part of activities to commemorate the day, Nigerian Heart Foundation in collaboration with the United Nations Association of Nigeria is organising essay competition among students in secondary schools in Nigeria,” the chairman- executive council said.

“ The topic which is ‘Hazards of Tobacco to the Heart: Role of Stakeholders in Nigeria’ should identify the problems, and provide recommendations for stakeholders in combatting tobacco spread with maximum of 2500 words typed in Times New Roman, 12 size font and double spaced” he added.

We believe Nigeria can still do more to make the proven tobacco control tools work for its citizens’ wellbeing and this is defining concept for the Essay competition.

In Nigerian, the Federal Ministry of Health stated that about 4.5 million Nigerians consume tobacco, on an annual basis, estimated to be about 20 billion sticks of cigarettes.

According to the both organisers of the essay, May 15th, 2018 is the deadline. All submission should be made to info @nigerianheart.org and copy info @unanigeria.org.

Students with entries are requested to use their full names and name of school as the subject of the email (Femi Uche – Federal Government School College Lagos) and entry should be submitted as an attachment in .doc or .pdf file formats.

Also, other details to be included in the submission are: Class, Age, Contact Telephone and Contact Email.

The winners will be awarded prizes ranging from laptops, tablets, mobile phones, and smart wrist watches and will be notified on the 22nd of May, 2018 against the event on 31st of May, 2018.

ANTHONIA OBOKOH