NIGERIAN SMOKERS WILL NOW GET 6 MONTHS IMPRISONMENT AND N50,000 FINE.

The Federal Executive Council on Wednesday approved the
draft National Tobacco Control Bill 2004 that will be sent to the
National Assembly as an Executive Bill for promulgation into
law.
The Bill recommends a minimum of six months imprisonment
or N50,000 or both for individuals that smoke in public places
designated as smoking areas.

Minister of Information, Mr. Laban Maku; and the Minister of
Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, disclosed this to State House
correspondents at the end of the meeting presided over by
President Goodluck Jonathan.
Chukwu said the penalties for corporate offenders varied from
N1million to N5million and one year to two years
imprisonment for the chief executives of such firms.
The minister added that all forms of advertisement of tobacco
is totally banned under the proposed law.
He added that while the law forbids government from accepting
gifts from tobacco firms, it also bans the firms from sponsoring
any public event.
When it finally becomes a law, he said 50 per cent of the
packaging of tobacco is expected to be used to warn the public
of the risks involved in smoking.
Chukwu said the government would set up a standing
committee that would assist law enforcement agencies in
implementing the law.
He said the present administration decided to work on the Bill
because the provisions of a similar one passed into law in
2001 were considered to be weak.
He listed some of the diseases linked to smoking to include
cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack and stroke;
cancer, especially that of the lung; as well as chronic
respiratory disorder.
He recalled that a Global Youth Tobacco Survey conducted in
2008 showed that 15 per cent of children between 13 years and
15 years are already smoking and another percentage exposed
as passive smokers.
He said the Global Adult Tobacco Survey on its part showed
that 10 percent of men in Nigeria smoke while 1.1 percent
women smoke.
This, he explained, showed that almost six per cent of adults in
Nigeria smoke.
He said, “This is not the first attempt in Nigeria to control the
use of tobacco in this country. In 1990 we had a decree which
tried to place some control on the sale and use of tobacco
products and in 2001, it was repealed and re-enacted to
become the National Tobacco Control Act of 2001.
“The whole idea is to make it stiffer, but when in 2004, Nigeria
along with other nations of the world signed the 2004 WHO
framework convention on tobacco control, there was then the
need to bring our laws in conformity because we actually as a
country ratified that convention the next year which was 2005.
“So that attempt by the Executive will eventually culminate in
the passage of a revised or amended Act as it were in 2011 by
the sixth session of the National Assembly.
“The bill is to protect Nigerians against the harmful effects of
tobacco. We know that tobacco is dangerous, tobacco is the
cause of many deaths and it causes so many illnesses.