As more youths take to smoking cigarettes, a civil society organisation (CSO) Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), Thursday, demanded a total ban on smoking in Nollywood movies as they directly and indirectly, advertise products of Tobacco Companies.
This was stated by the Executive Director CAPPA, Akinbode Ohiwafemi, at a media briefing held in Abuja. He said tobacco companies in Nigeria have over the years exploited the entertainment industry, films and music videos to entice and force young Nigerians into smoking tobacco without telling them the health dangers that could kill them and jeopardise their future.
He said: “This practice has long been documented across the globe and has informed the need for some form of regulations of contents accessible to the young. Such regulations are in place in the US, India, London and some other western nations”.
Since 2020, CAPPA has been spearheading advocacy efforts at building a critical mass to confront the industry’s tactics of wooing the young and uninformed through films and music videos. He explained the need for CAPPA to collaborate with Kannywood to tackle the menace in its scenes based on a survey conducted showing about 12 movies displaying tobacco scenes recklessly.
He added that the parley was a follow up to the first held on November 21, 2020 in Lagos with entertainment stakeholders “ The need to checkmate the industry and compel the shareholders in the sector to play active roles in the introduction of stringent measures to curb the industry’s strangle hold on the youth population informed our decision to engage with kannywood in the North.
“The research looked at recent films from the three ethnic nationalities in Nigeria (Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba) sold in the open market and the indirect ways they were used to advanced tobacco products.
“36 recent film were chosen from the three ethnic groups as case studies. Although this number might be considered small, it was however, representative enough for the purpose of the study. The genres of the films studied was conducted among the youth as majority viewers and consumers of the films confirmed.
“The 12 Hausa movies sampled are: Arkinzin Kano (Kano Wealth), Audukuni, Dagawakan Gida, Dije Ramadon Ali and Fitila and others are: Hausa Horror, Jagwal, Jarunta, Kamfauikarfin Zueiya and Yaran Alhaji.
The smoking scenes in the films were not necessary to help the film realize its purpose. The inclusion is that the smoking scenes may have been inserted in the films to promote smoking consciously or unconsciously he stated.
The recommendation are in tandem with the provisions of the National Tobacco Control Regulations 2019 that prohibit tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship in movies and entertainment”, he said.