The Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) has urged the Federal Government to end or stop graphic illustration of tobacco products and smoking in virtual space.
CAPPA in a statement on Wednesday made this demand in preparation for World Tobacco day.
In the statement tilted, “Time to close the gap in enforcing graphic health warning policy”, it stated that the alarming rate and impunity with which the tobacco industry and its promoters visibilize tobacco products and smoking in the virtual space requires the urgent attention of relevant agencies of government if we must save the next generation of young Nigerians.
It said, “ The images, videos and skits of celebrities smoking like chimney and glamorizing their acts on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media channels are now so frequent that they no longer elicit stupefaction among Nigerians. But we should be worried.
“There have equally been disturbing videos of adults sharing cigarettes with infants gleefully without caring about what they are doing to the kids.
“The most visible companies in Nigeria now promoting the smoking culture and products on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms are SmokeBoxNG and DaSmokeHub.
“These companies operating from Lagos and Abuja were called out by the Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) in its 2022 Report titled Tobacco Industry Capture of the Virtual Space in Nigeria for engaging popular music icons in the promotion of tobacco products and an alternative lifestyle that kids may innocently believe is hype.
“While the major tobacco companies in Nigeria now hide under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to launder their image, it may not be wrong to assume that they may have struck deals with vendors to visibilize their devil’s work through a host of entertaining videos that ultimately glamorize smoking and encourage youngsters to jump on the bandwagon.
“The tobacco vendors are so brazen that they even portrayed Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari as a smoker with the message “Everybody don join smokeboxgeng” in a Facebook post on May 21, 2020.
Mr Phillip Jakpor, the spokesperson of CAPPA, noted that the United States Centre for Disease Control (CDC) in 2019 reported that cigarette and smokeless tobacco companies spend billions of dollars each year to market their deadly products. In the US alone, the largest cigarette and smokeless tobacco companies are said to have spent a mind-boggling $8.2 billion on advertising and promotional expenses in 2019.
He hailed the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) for its efforts to arrest the tobacco menace in the country through the enforcement of the Graphic Health Warning (GHW) policy.
He urged FCCPC to beam its torchlight on the virtual space.
He said, “The GHWs policy which kicked off in November 2020 serves the dual purpose of educating Nigerians, especially young people on the dangers of tobacco, and sanctioning marketers of tobacco products that do not have the prescribed warnings in the legible sizes the government had introduced.
“Under this policy, tobacco packages must come with pictures and warnings that cover at least 50% of the front and back of the packages. Text-only health warning is also to be displayed on one of the lateral sides of the packages.
“The warnings will be rotated every 24 months and will be increased to 60% in June 2024.
“The policy is in harmony with the World Health Organisation (WHO) mandate to Parties to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) to put in place policies to check the glamorisation of tobacco products.
“Thus far, the enforcement exercise has taken place in Abuja, Lagos, Calabar, Kano and Port Harcourt.”
He urged agencies of government to urgently wake up and be alive to their responsibilities. These agencies include the Nigeria Police, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), among others.
“If Nigeria must checkmate the tobacco industry quest for the lungs of our kids, all hands must be on deck. The Federal Ministry of Health must not go to bed in the battle to ensure Nigerians enjoy the best of health. The time for talking is long gone. Now is the time for action,” he said.
