Editorial
Towards A Tobacco-Free Society
The World Health Organisation (WHO) recently raised an alarm that tobacco use and associated infections have risen to become one of the world’s highest preventable causes of death. According to the global health body, as many as six million people died of ailments connected with tobacco use while a whooping 600,000 die annually of secondary tobacco consumption.
WHO also warned that unless urgent steps were taken by nations of the world, to stem the increasing patronage of tobacco, especially among young people, eight million primary smokers and 800,000 secondary users will die yearly by 2030. This is frightening.
Even more worrisome is the fact that most of the deaths are likely to occur among those who live in low and middle income countries of the world, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, where, a huge percentage of the populations live below the poverty line.
Obviously, it was to prevent such horrific outcomes arising from tobacco use that the WHO Framework Convention On Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) was conceived. The Treaty which was adopted by the 56th World Health Assembly on May 21, 2003, came into force on February 21, 2005, having been signed by 168 countries. It is thus, legally binding in 176 ratifying/accessioned countries, including Nigeria.
The FCTC as a supra national agreement, seeks among others, “to protect the present and future generations from the devastating health, social, environmental and economic consequences of tobacco consumption and exposure to tobacco smoke,” by enacting a set of universal standards stating the dangers of tobacco and limiting its use in all forms worldwide.
Unfortunately, Nigeria was still appears indifferent to concerns for necessary enactments needed to ensure the control, if not total ban on tobacco use in public places. The 6th Assembly of Nigeria’s Legislature, we understand indeed passed the act but was never assented to, for reasons that are still foggy.
As the country joins the rest of the globe to mark World No Tobacco Day, it is only instructive to remind policy makers, governments and indeed the legislature of the need to see the urgency in fashioning more pro-active anti-tobacco laws.
The theme of this year’s observance is ‘Ban Tobacco Advertising, Promotion and Sponsorship’ is both apt and timely, considering the increasingly aggressive tobacco-based campaigns targeting teens and the youth. It is not enough to ban such advertisements without adequate monitoring, control and indeed necessary sanctions against defaulters. The expected enactment should consider all imperatives holistically. It must ban all advertisements that directly or indirectly target the young generation through the promise of mouth-watering offers in free gifts.
Secondly, we think that the warning on the tobacco packs sold in Nigeria is not only ambiguous, it is indeed ineffective. Therefore, rather than say non-committally, ‘The Federal Ministry of Health Warns That Smokers Are Liable To Die Young,’ tobacco producers should be compelled to be more direct in their warnings.
Instead ,as obtains in civilized countries, the tobacco companies should be compelled to warn, ‘Tobacco Use Causes Cancer,’ ‘Tobacco Smoking Kills,’ ‘Tobacco Is Poisonous,’ It Will Kill You,’ or, ‘Tobacco Cause Impotence,’ among other related infections. These indeed are the steps the WHO FCTC expects countries of the world to take and Nigeria and indeed other African countries cannot continue to remain indifferent.
Now therefore is the auspicious moment for the National Assembly to consider, without delay, an act seeking the total ban on tobacco use and sale in public places, as a step towards addressing WHO fears. We expect also that such a ban specifies a distance of not less than 500 metres, away from such public places like schools and hospitals, where tobacco sale and use must be outlawed.
No efforts should be spared in making sure that we protect both the present and future generations from harm, likely to be caused by the preventable diseases of tobacco use.
In this crusade, economic consideration arising from expected revenue in taxes from tobacco companies should not supersede the health, social and environmental imperatives of tobacco consumption by its citizenry. Instead, premium must be paid on the health needs of the citizenry, especially, the vulnerable teens and the youth, in debates concerning the recommended ban on tobacco use.
A stitch in time, they say, saves nine.
There are moments in the life of a legislature when plain speaking becomes a public service. Senator Adams Oshiomhole provided such a moment on the floor of the Senate when he accused the Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, of manifestly neglecting critical federal arteries in Edo and Delta States, and implored his colleagues to prevail on the Minister to adopt a more equitable and genuinely national approach to road infrastructure delivery. It was blunt, it was uncomfortable, and it was necessary.
The specifics of his complaint deserve restating. Drawing attention to the recent approval of some 20 new road projects despite the parlous state of existing ones, the former Edo State governor lamented that Nigerians cannot travel from Benin to Warri, Benin to Asaba, Benin to Auchi, or Auchi to Okene without encountering severe distress. He alleged a deliberate omission of these corridors from the national budget in the last three years, save for palliative interventions directed by President Bola Tinubu through tax credit arrangements. His question — “What have we done wrong?” — resonates far beyond the chambers of the National Assembly.
We lend our full and unequivocal support to that call. The Auchi-Benin Road, for instance, has been in a deplorable and near-impassable condition for several years, turning what should be a two-hour journey into an all-day ordeal of broken axles, extortionate fares, and despondent commuters. The media have, on multiple occasions, chronicled the suffering of motorists, traders, and students who ply that route. To describe it as a federal road today is to stretch the meaning of the term beyond recognition.
This pattern of sidelining is not confined to Edo or Delta. Even here in Rivers State, the disposition of the Federal Ministry of Works has left much to be desired, particularly along the Eleme axis of the East-West Road. That road, which ought to be a flagship of federal presence in the Niger Delta, has remained in a wretched state for long. Those who use it daily — workers at the Eleme Petrochemical Complex, the two refineries, Onne Port, and the countless ancillary industries — can attest to its deterioration. Work has proceeded in fits and starts without the sustained urgency such a strategic road demands.
The Eleme stretch is not a mere intra-state byway. It is the gateway to the nation’s economic jugular. According to the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing’s 2023 Highway Condition Survey, only about 35 per cent of the country’s 36,000 kilometres of federal roads are rated as being in good or fair condition, with the remainder classified as poor or very poor. The East-West Road, conceived in the 1970s to bind the entire Niger Delta, remains unfinished in critical sections more than four decades after. If it had been treated as a priority, the perennial gridlock, carnage, and economic loss on the Eleme-Refinery junction would have long been consigned to history.
The irony is as painful as it is glaring. The Niger Delta remains the goose that lays the golden eggs. Data from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative [NEITI 2023 Oil and Gas Audit] show that the region still accounts for over 78 per cent of Nigeria’s federally collected export earnings and about 65 per cent of total government revenue. The National Bureau of Statistics [NBS Foreign Trade Report Q4 2024] similarly confirms that crude oil continues to dominate export receipts. By every metric of equity and economic logic, a region that sustains the national purse deserves first-rate consideration in the allocation of infrastructure, not afterthoughts and tokenism.
Road infrastructure is not largesse to be dispensed by favour; it is the skeleton upon which commerce, cohesion, and citizenship hang. When contracts are concentrated in one geopolitical zone while other zones are left to contend with craters, it erodes trust in the federation itself. The World Bank’s Nigeria Development Update [June 2023] estimated that poor transport connectivity inflates the cost of moving goods by up to 40 per cent and costs the Nigerian economy an estimated $1.5 billion annually in lost man-hours and vehicle maintenance. If we profess to be one country, then equity must be the compass that guides key institutions before any project is executed. Development must spread round, not pool in one place as though other regions do not matter.
There is also a grave security dimension that can no longer be ignored. The deplorable condition of federal roads has become a veritable enabler of criminality. The NBS Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey reported over 2.5 million incidents of kidnapping-related occurrences nationally, with transport workers identifying bad road spots as prime ambush points. When vehicles are forced to crawl at 10 kilometres per hour through failed sections at Auchi, Sapele Road, or Eleme, they become sitting ducks for armed gangs. Fixing bad roads, therefore, is not merely about convenience; it is about safeguarding lives.
By his intervention, Senator Oshiomhole has hit the nail on the head and reminded Minister Umahi of a fundamental constitutional truth: public office is held in trust. The Ministry of Works is not a personal estate where contracts are awarded according to whim or political convenience. It is a national institution funded by the collective resources of Nigerians, including the oil and gas rents from the very communities whose roads are now neglected. The Minister must demonstrate balance, transparency, and a pan-Nigerian outlook in the distribution of projects that impact the daily existence of citizens. Selective neglect breeds suspicion, and suspicion is corrosive at a time when the nation is preaching unity, oneness, equity, and justice.
Consequently, the National Assembly must go beyond rhetoric and assert its oversight powers with vigour. Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution [as amended] empower the legislature to investigate and expose any maladministration in the execution of federal projects. If an office holder is not acting rightly, it is the duty of the Senate and the House of Representatives to call him to order. Oversight must not be reduced to budget approval ceremonies; it must translate to field verification, public hearings, and insistence that the Federal Character principle, as enshrined in Section 14(3) of the Constitution, reflects in road awards.
Let the Auchi-Okene, Benin-Warri, Benin-Asaba, and Eleme East-West gangways be restored to motorable dignity. Let priority be given to completing existing, economically vital roads before embarking on new ones. If those who, through their resources, sustain the federation are sidelined in the distribution of tangible dividends, it tells poorly of our nationhood. Bad roads must be fixed, and they must be fixed now, with fairness as the guiding standard.
