Ekiti state Government has called on the Federal government to give it all
the requires political will to enforced the tobacco smoking in public
places in Nigeria.
Speaking at the programme, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of
Emvironment who was represented by the Director, Environmental Health and
Sanitation, Mr. Tunde Balogun said lack of political will on the part of
the Federal government to thoroughly enforce the public smoking
prohibition law has been handicapping the state government from thoroughly
implementing and enforcing it.
According to him “this measure is very important in order to prevent people
from contacting the vary many deadly diseases that are associated with
tobacco smoking and second class smokers, that is; those people who are
not smokers but inhales the smoke” Smoking is a well known health risk, proven by the fact that more and more people are turning to vaping as an alternative. Luckily the vaping market is developing to include better technology like better ccell silo batteries, so that vaping is a more convenient option than smoking. Hopefully this, as well as prohibition laws in public places, will encourage more people to stop smoking.
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The call was made in Ado Ekiti on at one day capacity building programme
organised by a non Governmental Organisation (NGO) New initiative for
Social Development (NISD) with support from Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids
(CTFK) for security agents on enforcement and effective implementation of
Ekiti State smoke-free law, with the primary objective to create public
awareness on Ekiti prohibition of smoking in public places for effective
implementation.
Other objective of the programme was to build the capacity of law
enforcement agencies and other stakeholders to effectively implement the
law to promote and protect public health in the state.
The Deputy commandant, Nigeria Civil Defence Commission (NCDC) urged the
governments to set up a tobacco prohibition task force and monitoring team
to effect the enforcement of what he called a total war against public
smoking, with members to include; civil defence, police, prisons
officials, the health parsonnel, and other stakeholder agency or group.
He also urged the government to place multiple taxation on tobacco
producing industries, saying this measure will also reduce circulation of
the products in public places.
Earlier, the Director, NISD, Mr. Abiodun Oyeleye said if the government
can take the enforcement of tobacco smoking prohibition in public places
serious by attaching monetary fines to it against any offender caught by
the secutity agencies, it will not only go a long way in eradicating
smoking in public places, but will also increase the IGR of the government.
