From: Ikenga Chronicles
By Nojeem Adetuberu
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It is even quite disturbing that some government officials, who are supposed to be fully aware of issues, unknowingly pledge support for the cause to clamp down on the legitimate tobacco industry, whenever the anti-tobacco lobby take their campaigns to the corridors of power. Understandably, such misguided statements are borne out of political expediency rather than sound reasoning. The government functionaries also fail to verify such assertions and realize that smoking, like every other habit, cannot be regulated through aggressive taxes on tobacco but rather through effective public sensitization on the dangers inherent in the act.
Let us imagine that the legal tobacco industry goes into oblivion. This will automatically create a market for illicit tobacco because closing down legitimate tobacco producers in Nigeria does not automatically translate to people stopping to smoke. If these NGOs successfully destroy the legal tobacco industry, the government and the economy will be the biggest losers as there will be no formal tobacco firm to be regulated and generate revenue from. This, apart from impeding smokers’ rights, will not put an end to smoking but would merely precipitate recourse to illicit tobacco products most likely coming from the countries of the sponsors of the NGOs. The government will have to devote more resources to combat the booming illicit trade with a consequential increase in security breach of the country.
