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Nigeria: Smoking Among Kids Alarming – NGO

Published: 2010-10-21    Views:109 reads

 

A Non-Governmental Organization, Environmental Right Action (ERA) has warned that the rate of smoking among school children is now alarming.

ERA at a press conference in Abuja urged the Senate to pass the National Tobacco Control Bill that has been pending before it. Director of Corporate Accountability and Administration, Mr. Akinbode Oluwafemi said that the result of the Global Youth Survey conducted recently in some states revealed that more school children watch tobacco adverts and may imbibe the habit of smoking.

According to him, the survey shows that, 33.9 percent of the youth now engage in smoking in Adamawa State.

Oluwafemi said, "you will recall that the NTCB scaled through the second reading at the Senate in February 2009, and public hearing was conducted in July 2009. Since then, the Senate Committee on Health has not returned the bill to the Senate plenary for passage into law".

He also said that the statement from Senator Kamarudeen Adedibu that the bill is dead calls for concern.

He explained, "in April, 2010, at a public relations event organised by BATN in a tobacco growing community of Isenyin Osun State, Senator Kamarudeen Adedibu was qouted as saying that the NTCB was dead.

"He also explained that the bill if passed would have resulted in the loss of 600,000 jobs. That statement from Senator Adedibu went unchallenged from the Senate. It was enough to cause anxiety and uncertainty about the true status of the bill.

"The statement also raised doubts about the commitment of the Senate to public health. It also raised questions on how much influence the tobacco industry has over our policy makers".

ERA pleaded with the Senate to pass the bill as a matter of urgency.