| Summary: | Background
Tobacco
consumption is very injurious to the health and wellbeing of people. This is
because both passive and active smokers bear disproportionate burden of
smoking. Nigeria is the most populous nation in Africa with youths accounting
for about 60% of the population. The rate of tobacco consumption in
Nigeria is disturbing. An estimated 4.5 million people are addicted to tobacco
in Nigeria. Nigerians spend about NGN 89 billion on tobacco annually. However,
there are regional difference in the consumption of tobacco in Nigeria. South
Eastern Nigeria has the highest incidence of smokeless tobacco usage while
Northern Nigeria has the highest tobacco smokers.
Methods
Available statistics, reveal youths are the highest consumers of tobacco in Nigeria accounting for 15.4percent of national tobacco consumption. The Nigerian government recently formulated a policy to control consumption of tobacco in Nigeria. The policy states that citizens can only consume certain amount of cigarette otherwise it will not be sold to them.
Results
This policy will be
counterproductive as it will expand consumption for tobacco consumers. Furthermore,
tobacco tax is significantly lower in Nigeria than elsewhere. Therefore,
tobacco companies in Africa post high profits even when other markets are
shrinking due to the favourable conditions in Nigeria is not far-fetched.
Conclusions
This
paper therefore recommends that government should be more stringent in the
implementation of existing anti-tobacco legislations especially increasing
tobacco tax.
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