FCT’s war against public smoking

Senator John James Akpanudoedehe,
Minister of State, FCT.In this piece, Deputy Editor, Bankole Makinde, reports that regardless of the efforts of the FCT minister, Dr. Aliyu Modibbo Umar, to combat public smoking at the FCT, residents are now, more than ever before, neck-deep in the disastrous habit.

THE decision to ban smoking in public places in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) is backed by an enabling law called the “Tobacco Control Act of 2004”.This law prohibits smoking in areas designated as public places such as offices, stadia, hospitals, public vehicles, elevators, schools, hotels and restaurants, among others.

While the FCT administration (FCTA) respects the rights and freedom of residents of Abuja, the FCT Minister, Dr. Aliyu Modibbo Umar, said he was of the unshaken confidence that the decision to ban smoking in public places, just like the ban on public consumption of alcohol, was in line with the administration’s resolve to protect the lives and property of all residents.

Taking a critical look at medical statistics on the harm tobacco smoking has caused, according to medical reports, tobacco is the leading cause of death today.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that over 5.4 million people die every year from direct or indirect use of tobacco, and if nothing is done to stop the rising rate of smoking ,especially among the young and under-aged, the number will rise to eight million people every year.It is estimated that someone dies of a tobacco-related disease somewhere in the world every eight seconds.

Another major problem is the danger of cigarette smoke to innocent bystanders and children, otherwise referred to as passive smokers.It has been established that for every eight smokers who die, one innocent bystander also dies of passive smoking.Similarly, if you are exposed to tobacco smoke for about two hours, then you have smoked an equivalent of four cigarettes!Passive smoking is as deadly as real tobacco smoking.

There are many other diseases associated with the use of tobacco such as chronic cough, cancer as well as other respiratory illnesses. Medical research has shown that a single stick of cigarette contains more than 4,000 cancer-triggering chemicals extremely harmful to the human body.

Tobacco use is also a major cause of infertility in both men and women. Passive smoking produces the same amount of dangerous chemicals as the actual smoking. It is especially dangerous for pregnant women and children whose lungs are still too tender to withstand the dangerous chemicals they inhale.

According to WHO, tobacco use killed 100 million people in the 20th century while in this century, it could kill up to one billion people and, sadly, young people are not left out. About 100,000 of them will pick up, for the very first time, one or more of the 15 billion sticks of cigarette sold worldwide and that is the beginning of a lifetime relationship with the “stick of death”.

The recent decision by the FCTA to ban smoking in public places within the FCT, effective from June 1, 2008, culminated in the constitution of an 8-member committee by the FCT minister, Dr. Aliyu Modibbo Umar, for the enforcement of the new policy.

The decision by the FCTA was borne out of its desire to guarantee residents of the city a healthy living as many of them are aware of the great dangers that cigarettes smoking poses to the lives of the citizenry, especially children, who are susceptible to the hazards of smoking.

While explaining the rationale behind the execution of the “Tobacco Control Act” and its expected mode of operation, the Secretary of the Social Services Secretariat of the FCTA who doubles as the chairperson of the committee on the ban of smoking in public places in t he FCT, Mrs. Felicita Olajide, at the Committee’s press briefing which was held at the Cyprian Ekwensi Centre for Arts and Culture, Area 10, Abuja , on May 15, 2008, said the Implementation Committee, in order to ensure the success of the new policy, concluded arrangements for the flagging -off of the campaign on May 31, 2008.

Mrs. Olajide said the date was deliberately chosen to coincide with the “World No Tobacco Day” during which Dr. Modibbo Umar, the FCT Minister, led politicians, students, hoteliers, civil servants, NGO’s and members of the public on a sensitisation walk which terminated at the Eagle Square, Abuja.

According to her, what was being done in the FCT was to ensure the protection of public health just as is presently being done in several capital cities of the world like New York, London and other places which have all adopted a tobacco-free policy.

Describing Abuja as a model city, Mrs. Olajide said the FCT Minister expected all residents to join hands with the FCTA in the crusade, while appealing to the press for support in disseminating the information and educating FCT residents. “The Committee shall be collaborating with relevant agencies and stakeholders, including civil society organisations, in ensuring that the objective of the no-smoking campaign, which is reduction of smoking in the capital city, is realised”, she said,adding that “the FCT has a mandate to make Abuja smoking-free, such that the City would join the comity of other progressive cities in the world which had taken this step”.

The Secretary also said that the FCT hoped to disseminate all necessary information to residents as to where they could smoke and where they must not, adding that the FCTA would also put in place modalities to help those who may be willing to quit smoking for good.

Minister of State for the FCT, Senator John James Akpanudoedehe, on his part, declared that the issue of smoking had nothing to do with geographical setting. According to him, those who wish to smoke, whom he termed as the minority, should do so within the confines of their homes rather than infringe on the rights of the majority , as guaranteed by the constitution. He vowed that all violators of the “Tobacco Control Act” would be arrested, prosecuted and punished appropriately.

Sounding the same refrain, the Health Secretary of the FCTA, Dr. Abubakar Ali-Gombe who spoke through the Director of Medical and Diagnostic Services of the Health Secretariat, Dr. Enefiok Benjamin Udofia, said although no one could prevent anyone from smoking, the vilolators of the law on public smoking would be punished.He wondered why Nigerians should deliberately dig their own graves with their own lips, knowing how injurious cigarette smoking could be to their health.

But why do people smoke regardless of the fact that it does no good to human existence? A medical practitioner based in Akure, Ondo State, who owns Dairo and Dairo Hospital and who doubles as the Chairman of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party in the state, Dr. Tayo Dairo, said so many reasons could be adduced to the socially destructive habit.

According to him, people smoke due to peer pressure, imitation of their parents and the elderly or the urge to act out the habit of the big guns in the society who they look up to as role models. Other reasons, according to him, are the influence of advertisements which portray smokers as successful people in the society.He however added that smoking is addictive such that once a person engages in it, such a person finds it difficult to quit the deadly habit.

Another medical practitioner who is resident in Abuja but who pleaded anonymity believes that smoking could be hereditary, and may also be another dimension of showing self-esteem. However, regardless of the fact that the penalty for offenders range from N200 to six months imprisonment or both, residents of the FCT have intensified their smoking in public places.

Kunle Olamitoke, a computer analyst, said Dr. Umar would have to choose between buying his (Kunle’s) coffin and stopping him from smoking as, according to him, N200 is a “chicken change” for him to pay for violating the Tobacco Control Act. Presently in Abuja, smokers troop to even non-designated areas, armed with their N200 in their pockets, waiting for the Minister’s no-smoking policemen to arrest them.Most of them believe that anyone contemplating sending them to jail just for puffing a stick of cigarette is merely playing to the gallery.

Just like in the case of the Sharia Islamic Legal System, which requires the testimony of four unbiased persons to merit conviction, Abuja smokers are of the view that it would be a hazardous task for the no-smoking policemen to find four willing persons to testify against them upon arraignment.

Besides, the supposed police enforcers who are, in any case, non-existent, are not armed to effect any meaningful arrest and the residents are at a loss as to whether they would be in uniform or in mufti, a situation which would allow impersonators to usurp their functions.

Again, most smokers who work in government establishments in Abuja don’t smoke in the day time and the supposed policemen don’t work after the close of work by civil servants and so they may never get to meet one another. Sadly, the Social Development Secretariat, just like its Health Secretariat Counterpart, is yet to roll out the drums by placing the no-smoking advertisements in strategic locations of the FCT.

Until all these are effected, Sola Akerele said, the smoking party continues.