Communique
2003______________________________________________
PEOPLE AGAINST DRUG DEPENDENCE & IGNORANCE
with
support from the
AFRICAN
REGIONAL OFFICE of the WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
MULTI-SECTORAL
WORKSHOP ON STRENGHTENING LOCAL TOBACCO CONTROL MECHANISMS
AND THE FRAMEWORK CONVENTION ON TOBACCO CONTROL (FCTC)’
COMMUNIQUE
CONCERND
about the ever increasing tobacco related deaths world-wide,
particularly in developing countries such as Nigeria ;
SHOCKED
by the fact that over 4.8million tobacco-related deaths occour
world-wide per annum (this amounts to approximately one death
every 6 seconds) – a figure far higher than the cummulative
annual global death toll from HIV/AIDS, Motor accidents and
Murder ;
ALARMED
that whilst our Federal Government insists that Nigerians
pay the ‘international price’ for such vital items
as petrol, electricity, health care and other public utilitties,
the same government is indifferent to the fact that cigarettes
(a product detrimental to the health of the populace in all
its ramifications) is still heavily subsidized. (Whilst a
packet of cigarette costs 5 British Pounds in England {N1,150}
or U.S.$7.20 in the United States {N1,010}, the same cigarette
produced by the same company in Nigeria, costs a mere N150
(one hundred and fifty naira).
EXPRESSING
WORRY on the abysmall level of ignorance of the trite
health, social and economic consequences of cigarette consumption
on our society ;
DISMAYED
by the attitude of tobacco multi-nationals operating in Nigeria,
particularly British America Tobacco (BAT) to adopt and apply
deceptive and innapropriate marketting and advertising practices
– practices which are not condoned in the multi-national
companies home country ;
REALIZING
that the tobacco industry (cigarette companies) are
by all definitions of the term ‘drug cartels’
– organizations marketting highly addictive substances/drugs
and thus likely to and have repeatedly adopted sinister strategies
to protect their huge ‘illicit’ profit base ;
ENCOURAGED
by the provisiond intendments and derivable benefits from
the implementation and enforcement of the Framework Convention
on Tobacco Control (FCTC) ;
The
Participants now resolve as follows :
1. The
Nigerian Government should as a matter of urgency and as a
means of concretizing our avowed ‘leadership’
and ‘giant-of-Africa’ status on the African continent,
immediately SIGN and RATIFY the Framework Convention on Tobacco
Control (FCTC).
2. All
traditional and customary rites which involve the presentation
of cigirette products should be prohibited. Cigarette consumption
has never been part of the history or culture of our peoples.
How it has been smuggled into some cultural observances such
as bride price, burial and age grade observances should be
discouraged and investigated.
3. Community
leaders at the grassroot level should be encouraged to prohibit
cigarette usage at community functions.
4. Intensive
preventive education and public awareness campaigns on the
adverse consequences of tobacco consumption should be undertaken
at all levels of government, religious and civil society organisations.
5. Regulatory
mechanism( taxes, tariff, import quotation, etc. ) should
be immediately applied on cigarettes to ensure that this lethal
product is not subsidised to ruin the Nigerian nation.
6. Product
regulatory agencies, particularly the National Agency on Food
Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and the Standards
Organization of Nigeria (SON) should set up their regulatory
obligations in controling tobacco and cigarette consumption.
7. The
Participants strongly recommend the translation of the Framework
Convention on Tobacco Control, tobacco regulatory policies
documents and anti-tobacco campaign materials (posters, stickers
and so on) to our native languages for greater grassroot outreach.
8. Training
of Trainers (T-o-T) of journalists, civil society activists
and policy makers on the need to confront the tobacco epidemic
should be intensified and continued. There must also be oppourtunity
for step-down training and dissemination of ideas to rural
and other grass-root communities.
9. Participants
agreed that ‘consequences of cigarette consumption’
must be incorporated into the curricula of educational institutions
in the country.
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