Reported by: Oahimire Omone Precious | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
A coalition of over 80 civil society organisations, health advocates, and public interest groups has issued an urgent warning that the proposed National Tobacco Control Act (Amendment) Bill 2025 could dismantle years of hard-won public health gains and expose millions of Nigerian youths to highly addictive nicotine products. The groups, united under the Nigeria Tobacco Control Community, have called for the immediate recall of the legislation, describing it as a catastrophic reversal of the country's tobacco control framework and a direct assault on the health of future generations.
The warning comes as the bill, which has already passed through the National Assembly, awaits President Bola Tinubu's assent. In a joint statement read on Monday in Abuja by Akinbode Oluwafemi, Executive Director of Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), the coalition argued that rather than strengthening Nigeria's tobacco control laws, the amendment creates a commercially permissive environment for electronic cigarettes, heated tobacco products, nicotine pouches, and other non-combustible nicotine products. The groups insisted that any amendment must strengthen, not weaken, public health protections.
At the heart of the controversy lies a legal contradiction that health advocates have described as absurd. The bill defines non-combustible products to include heated tobacco products, but then defines tobacco products to exclude all non-combustible products. This means a product containing actual tobacco would cease to be treated as a tobacco product merely because it is heated rather than burned. The coalition noted that this classification contradicts the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which Nigeria has ratified and which expressly recognises heated tobacco products as tobacco products that must be subjected to comprehensive tobacco control measures. "For Nigeria to enact a statute declaring otherwise would render the nation a laughingstock within the global public-health community," the groups stated.
The bill has also been criticised for reopening avenues for tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship that the 2015 Act had strictly prohibited. Under the proposed legislation, advertising of non-combustible products would be permitted in adult publications, at point-of-sale displays, on online platforms, and at adult events. The coalition took particular issue with the bill's definition of an adult publication as one in which at least 50 per cent of readers are above 18 years. Citing UNICEF data, the groups noted that more than 60 per cent of Nigerians are below 30 years, over 70 per cent are under 35, and a staggering 43 per cent are aged 15 or younger. Against this demographic reality, the threshold would create a lawful route for tobacco and nicotine advertisements to reach young people through newspapers, magazines, blogs, and digital platforms.
The coalition further condemned provisions permitting online sales, courier deliveries, remote purchases, and product sampling of non-combustible tobacco products. The 2015 Act had prohibited tobacco sales through mail, internet, and other online channels. The amendment reverses this by authorising a complete commercial chain: the industry could advertise online, display and sample products in shops, and deliver them directly to consumers' homes. The groups argued that Nigeria lacks the enforcement capacity to effectively monitor online advertisements, retail displays, and home deliveries of tobacco and nicotine products. The assumption that age verification checks mandated in the bill will protect children and vulnerable people was described as "laughable".
The World Health Organisation has warned that nicotine is highly addictive and that exposure during adolescence can affect brain development. Health experts have also expressed concern that youths who use e-cigarettes are more likely to transition to traditional cigarette smoking later in life. The Africa Centre for Tobacco Industry Monitoring and Policy Research (ATIM) warned that emerging nicotine products could provide a new pathway to nicotine addiction, particularly among young people. The centre noted that adult smoking prevalence in Nigeria is now estimated at around 5 to 6 per cent, representing substantial progress compared with previous decades. "Nigeria should be strengthening the measures that have helped reduce smoking, not creating new policy openings that could undermine those gains," ATIM said.
ATIM also raised concerns about the insertion of "Tobacco Harm Reduction" as an objective of the legislation. According to tobacco control activists, Tobacco Harm Reduction is a discredited tactic through which the industry lobbies to openly market nicotine products by claiming that these addictive products will help tobacco users quit. The centre called for greater transparency and public scrutiny, demanding disclosure of stakeholders who proposed the relevant provisions, submissions received during the legislative process, meetings held with tobacco and nicotine industry representatives, and the evidence relied upon in developing the differentiated regulatory framework.
The coalition also opposed provisions that would weaken packaging and health warning requirements, reduce penalties for violations, and allow tobacco companies to classify product information as trade secrets, thereby limiting public access to critical safety information. They further criticised a clause that would allow the Minister of Health to exempt certain products from statutory rules on undefined "public interest" grounds, warning that such discretion could encourage lobbying and regulatory capture.
Signatories to the joint statement include the Nigeria Tobacco Control Alliance, CAPPA, Gatefield Impact, Nigerian Cancer Society, Youth Coalition Against Cancer, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, Oncology Nursing Society of Nigeria, Association of Resident Doctors (Abuja), and several other health and civil society organisations. Speaking on behalf of the Nigeria Tobacco Alliance, Olawale Makanjuola urged the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to intervene, stating that the bill was inconsistent with public health objectives and could undermine years of investment in tobacco control. "Some organisations have invested in tobacco control. Public health should be of importance to Nigeria. As members of the Tobacco Alliance, we are firmly against this bill. This is not an investment; this is trying to ruin the future of Nigerians," he said.
The coalition acknowledged some positive provisions in the bill, including the extension of smoke-free zones to within 30 metres of schools and health facilities. However, they maintained that the overall effect of the legislation would be devastating. The groups have demanded the publication of committee reports, voting records, and stakeholder submissions relating to the development of the consolidated bill, questioning how some provisions entered the final text given that earlier versions presented during a November 2024 public hearing did not contain the concessions now included.
As President Tinubu considers whether to sign the bill into law, the tobacco control community has made its position unmistakably clear. The amendment, they argue, does not protect Nigerians. It instead weakens existing safeguards and creates a wide-open market for tobacco and nicotine companies to thrive at the expense of public health. With 43 per cent of Nigeria's population aged 15 or younger, the stakes could not be higher. The question now is whether the government will prioritise the health of its youngest citizens or open the door to an industry that has spent decades perfecting the art of addicting new generations.
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