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Nigeria’s Minister of State for Health, Olorunnimbe Mamora, has said the government increased tax on cigarettes from 20 to 30 per cent in June to dissuade Nigerians from tobacco consumption.

The minister disclosed this in Abuja on Tuesday while delivering his remark at the launch of the Tobacco Control Data Initiative Dashboard.

The event was organised by the federal ministry of health in partnership with the Development Gateway – A digital and data for development initiative.

“The Federal Government of Nigeria, with effect from 1st June 2022, commenced implementation of a new three-year tobacco tax regime which will end in 2024. This new regime increased the Ad-Valorem tax rate from 20 per cent to 30 per cent,” the minister said.

Also, he said there is a specific excise rate increase from N58 to N84 for a pack of 20 sticks which will have a continuous increase to N94 in 2023 and N104 in 2024.

The minister said Shisha is also taxed at N3,000 per litre and N1,000 per kilogram and would increase yearly by N500.

“This pro-health tax increase is effective and has the capacity to reduce demand and consumption of tobacco in Nigeria,” he added.

According to the 2012 Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS), 5.6 per cent (4.5 million) Nigerians of 15 years and older currently use tobacco products.

The minister said the result also found high and significant exposure to second-hand smoke (SHS) during visits to public places with the prevalence of 82 per cent in bars or nightclubs, 36.3 per cent in coffee shops, 22.3 per cent in universities and 29.3 per cent in restaurants.

“The Tobacco Atlas 6th edition estimates that more than 26,800 annual deaths occur from tobacco-related diseases in Nigeria,” the minister said.

He explained that a report of studies by the Centre for the Study of the Economies of Africa, published in 2021 also corroborated that 29,472 deaths were attributable to smoking in Nigeria.

While efforts are ongoing at the global level to address the damages caused by tobacco use, Mr Mamora said, “we have not relented at the country level with so many responses.”

The President of the Nigeria Senate, Ahmed Lawan, has lambasted the Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, the Minster of State for Health, Sen. Adeleke Mamora, and the Permanent Secretary of the ministry over their absence at the COVID-19 summit.

The summit was put together by the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) on COVID-19 to fashion out workable solutions towards ending the pandemic and build back the economy better.

The two-day summit which started with technical sessions last weekend, commenced proper on Monday, December 6.

The summit was with the theme: Pushing through the Last Mile to End the Pandemic and Build Back Better.

The objectives of the summit, among others, include to review the country’s COVID-19 response from February 2020 to November 2021- to identify successes, gaps, and lessons learnt; identify resources and develop strategies that will actualize the country’s expressed international commitments towards ending COVID-19 by 31st December 2022; develop an accountability framework for COVID-19 response and health security in Nigeria; synthesize the blueprint for Nigeria’s pandemic recovery, reconstruction, health security, and sustainability; and articulate actionable recommendations to President Muhammadu Buhari on the governance structure, resources, and policies needed to end COVID-19 in Nigeria by December 31, 2022, and build back the health system and the economy to better respond to future health-security threats.

The Senate President who was visibly not happy with the conspicuous absence of the top officials of the Ministry of Health said: “Before I begin my remark, is the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Health here? Well, I asked that question because the two ministers of health are not here, the minister of health, the minister of state and the permanent secretary are not here. I believe that is not good”.

“Because everything we do here, the Federal Ministry of Health is supposed to be here to garner all the resources that will come out of this.

“The PSC is simply an interventionist outfit. And as politicians and political leaders, we are supposed to be very serious and committed about the health of our people. Thank you very much”

Some experts in the health sector who were at the summit, while responding to questions from journalists on the reaction of the Senate President, commended the him for speaking the truth.

Expressing his feelings to journalists on the reaction of the Senate President, an expert who pleaded not be named said: “The Senate President had done what true leaders are supposed to do. The Ministers and indeed top officials of the federal ministry of health have the penchant of not attending events organised for the improvement of the health sector. Most times if they attend, they come late making people to wait for them for hours.

“The Minister of health has killed the health sector because since he came, nothing is working in the sector. In fact, the sector is at a stand-still. It is shameful that what they could not organise, the PSC has help them to organised but they still have the guts to stay away.

“Even though the minister was around during the technical sessions on Saturday and Sunday, it is not good enough for him not to create time and sit at the summit from the beginning to the end. This is like calling people to come and help you carry some load and when they come, you stay away. As the Senate President said, this is not good.”

Meanwhile, a renown health expert, Prof. Oyewale Tomori, has called for the revamping of the culture of the Nigerians, insisting that: “No matter what plans we formulate to respond to pandemics and disaster, we will surely fail, if we do not seriously address the issue of culture and environment”

He noted that Global Health Security must be built on the foundation of National Health Security and the National Health Security must be laid on the foundation of individual or personal health security.

“COVID is not the enemy, Lassa fever is of minor league, Yellow fever is yellow livered, Monkeypox is child’s play, Cholera is a dehydrator, our underdevelopment and backwardness rest on four pillars.”

The real enemies of Nigeria, he said, include lack of patriotism, the main destroyer of our nation; self-interest, the burial ground of our national interest; corruption, the executor of our orderly development and shamelessness, the destruction of our national pride.

“Over the last 60 years, these diseases, all affecting our culture, have become the combined endemic demolisher of the foundation of our individual health security which has shaken the foundation of our national health security and in turn determined our irrelevance as a nation in contributing meaningfully to global health security,” he stressed.

Minister of Health

FG Increases Tax on Cigarettes to Reduce Consumption

Senate Lambast Ministers of Health, Permanent Secretary over absence at COVID-19 Summit