I HAVE always been appalled by the antics of the tobacco industry in Nigeria. While the rest of the world is engaged in a war on tobacco and the industry is in retreat, it appears that Big Tobacco faces no form of opposition in Nigeria. Tobacco is a public enemy. In Europe alone, half a million people are believed to die from tobacco-related illnesses each year. Many countries have now banned smoking in public places and more are taking measures to do the same in the workplace. When I visited Canada last year, I was surprised at the number of anti-smoking billboards and posters in that country.
Yet, one cannot begin to imagine the zillions of dollars that the tobacco industry makes from systematically poisoning Nigerian citizens. As someone who has lost a friend to smoking-induced lung cancer, I have experienced cigarette grief first hand. My friend started smoking when she was 18 and no matter how hard she tried, she could not quit till lung cancer finally claimed her life. In the world today, cigarettes owe their legality to varied factors such as very high demand, intense political lobbying and political pragmatism. Governments can still remember how gangsters hijacked the liquour trade in the Prohibition era and feel that it is much better for cigarettes to remain legal. They reason that if cigarettes are banned, organised crime groups will simply take over the trade. This will surely lead to greater health dangers as a result of sub-standard products.
But this does not make smoking a safe or commendable practice. If there was any such thing as a utopia, cigarettes will definitely not feature in the scheme of things. A product that makes it clear that you are liable to die young should be given a wide berth. So, even though cigarettes remain legal, more governments have realised the dangers of cigarettes and are making efforts to curb it. In the U.S, tobacco companies have been continually held liable for tobacco-related deaths. In most parts of Europe, they face crippling taxes.
As a result of these huge settlements in America and tax burdens in Europe, these giant conglomerates have gradually moved shop to developing countries where governments can be bought, consumer rights groups are non-existent and the judicial system is too weak to deliver judgements in favour of ordinary people. It is instructive to note that as far back as 1997, the Attorneys-General of all U.S States sued the major Tobacco companies and won a settlement of 380 billion dollars. In spite of this, more lawsuits are filed every year resulting in even greater settlements. Just last month, tobacco companies suffered another legal setback after a judge ruled that America’s government could go ahead with a case that seeks some 280 billion dollars of past profits. The American government alleges that these firms misled the public about the risk of smoking in a conspiracy starting in the 1950s. This is a practice that still obtains in developing countries. Today, many developed countries have banned cigarette advertising in acknowledgement of the subliminal but powerful effect that it exerts on young people.
Lobby groups
Given the growth of the anti-smoking lobby in developed countries, tobacco companies have naturally begun to concentrate on less threatening but highly profitable markets like Russia, China and Nigeria. Here, they package themselves as consumer-friendly companies that only target the “adult” smoker and insinuate that they are helping our economy by investing in Tobacco. Well, this is not the 19th century when some doctors even claimed that cigarettes helped cure asthma. Every enlightened person now knows that cigarettes are very harmful and addictive.
It is disheartening to think that in a largely agrarian society such as ours, poor farmers are actually being helped to grow a very harmful product. It would be much better if our government promotes genuine agricultural investment rather than the double-edged sword that is tobacco. However, cigarette manufacturers are very powerful lobbyists. Now that they have been asked to stop outdoor advertising, they have virtually pioneered experiential marketing in Nigeria. We can all remember those sleek and stylish cigarette adverts that seemed to suggest that smokers are all successful executives with a lot of style and panache.
They have even resorted to placing “articles” in newspapers, where they market cigarettes as the perfect accessory for the man of style. I alighted on one of such articles recently. I thought that it was a public service article given that it started with “Tobacco manufacturers are currently making efforts to control the increasing cases of indiscriminate smoking among people, especially with the distribution of their products, as part of efforts to check its attendant hazards across the world.” The rest of the article turned out to be an endorsement of Rothmans, “a premium brand “with about 1 billion sticks and market share of 14.3 per cent. The second paragraph read, “Conscious of the fact that ‘smokers are liable to die young’ the manufacturers, according to investigation by our correspondent, believed one’s span, at least, to a larger extent, depends on providence and how one plans it.”
It then goes on to say that the cigarette in question (Rothmans) was targeted at the ‘more experienced smoker.’ Well, there is no such thing as the “more experienced smoker”. No matter your age, smoking is addictive and can fry your lungs. This is just a thinly veiled denial of the harmful effects of cigarette smoking. The writer, obviously a hired hack, is simply saying that many other things apart from cigarettes can kill a man and that is a ludicrous assertion. And even though tobacco companies make so much noise about targeting the experienced adult smoker, the truth is that more Nigerian youths and ladies are beginning to smoke.
The cultural effects of globalisation and the satellite television make it much easier for Nigerian youths to identify with their Western counterparts. A six-year study recently conducted at the University of Leeds, has shown that twice as many British girls have started smoking by the time they are 16. This is in spite of an active anti-smoking lobby and numerous campaigns to warn them about the dangers of tobacco. Imagine the situation of things in Nigeria where there is no legal smoking age and no anti-smoking lobby. The truth of the matter is that Big Tobacco cannot promote responsible smoking because there is no such thing as responsible smoking.
The only way that tobacco could be responsible would be by stopping the sale of cigarettes altogether, which they cannot do because so many people are addicted to it, and there are billions of dollars to be made. The government is not doing enough. People hardly take notice of the warning that “Smokers are liable to die young” any longer. The government has to start an effective anti-smoking campaign if it wants to discourage smoking in any way. First of all, NAFDAC should start regulating the tar and nicotine content of cigarettes in Nigeria to make sure that they comply with international standards. Then, the public should be enlightened about the other effects of smoking. Giant billboards that carry such warnings like “Cigarettes cause lung cancer”, “Tobacco use can make you impotent” and “Cigarettes hurt babies” should be erected across the country. Such measures actually make a difference. Tobacco sales in France have hit a historic low today because Jacques Chirac, a smoker for 14 years, declared a war on tobacco.
War on tobacco
It is especially ominous that ladies are beginning to smoke because smoking also presents a lot of hazards to the pregnant mother and a cigarette addict remains one even if she is pregnant. There is also the problem of secondary smoke which is also very harmful and encroaches on a nonsmoker’s right to unpolluted air. We should not expect Tobacco companies to take measures to destroy their own industry. On the contrary, we should expect stiff opposition. Tobacco companies are very vindictive. Ask Jeffrey Wigand, the famed tobacco whistleblower that inspired the Hollywood movie, “The Insider.” Big Tobacco pulled no punches in trying to destroy Wigand’s reputation and credibility. In an economic sense, BAT is also a danger to our economy.
According to Fitch and Sherwood, a consultancy, the company controls 98 per cent of the Nigerian market. This makes it the biggest buyer of tobacco in the country and since the company controls demand and is not legally bound to buy tobacco from Nigerian farmers, then it is logical to assume that our farmers are being ripped off. In fact, BAT is both a monopoly and a monopsony in the Nigerian cigarette industry. This behemoth controls the four major brands in Nigeria, namely Benson and Hedges, St. Moritz, Rothmans and London. The new MD of BAT recently boasted that the company has paid 20 billion Naira in taxes since its inception. However, he refused to disclose its earnings. Fitch and Sherwood claims that the company has made a staggering profit of 232 billion Naira since it began operations in Nigeria. Quite a wonderful return, you could say, for a product that kills consumers.
The simple truth is that cigarette is a harmful product and we should not be afraid to say it. It is high time that Nigerians stopped being afraid of Big Business. The only reason that I am writing this article is to initiate a consumer revolt against Big Tobacco in Nigeria. We can no longer sit and fold our hands. We have to use the weapons available to us-the law and public opinion-to change our environment through constructive protest. We have to let erring corporations realise that it is no longer business as usual. We can no longer sit and watch as Big Tobacco kills our citizens without paying for it. We have to act. My friend smoked three packs of cigarette every day for 16 years of her life. It still hurts me that I could do nothing for her. I only hope that this article can help change public perception about tobacco in Nigeria.
![[Image]](http://news.biafranigeriaworld.com/..\..\..\images\vlogo.gif){kind=small}
