By JKNewsMedia
NEED TO amend Nigeria’s National Tobacco Control Act (NTCA) have drawn strong opposition from tobacco control groups, which described the proposed legislation as a reversal of public health gains and urged lawmakers to stop it.
JKNewsMedia.com reports that in a joint statement issued on Thursday, the coalition said the NTCA (Amendment) Bill, 2025 must not advance, regardless of its current administrative stage after passage through the National Assembly (NASS).
The groups called on relevant legislative committees to recall the bill immediately and urged President Bola Tinubu to withhold assent if it is presented for executive approval.
The coalition said the bill failed to close regulatory gaps or bring new tobacco and nicotine products under stricter oversight.
Instead, it argued, the legislation dismantled core protections and created a weaker regime for electronic cigarettes, heated tobacco products, nicotine pouches and other non-combustible products.
The groups said the 2015 Act was founded on the principle that tobacco products are dangerous and highly addictive and therefore require absolute restrictions on advertising, promotion, sponsorship, display and remote accessibility.
They said the amendment reversed that principle by granting newer products freedoms denied to cigarettes and related products.
“In one of its most embarrassing contradictions, the bill defines non-combustible products to include heated tobacco products, then defines tobacco products to exclude all non-combustible products.
The legal effect is that a product containing actual tobacco would cease to be treated as a tobacco product merely because it is heated rather than burned,” the statement said.
The coalition described the classification as absurd, saying the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHOFA-TC) expressly recognises heated tobacco products as tobacco products that must be subjected to full tobacco control measures.
It said enacting a statute that declares otherwise would make Nigeria “a laughingstock within the global public health community” and argued that Nigeria should lead Africa rather than provide a precedent for what it described as harmful industry interests in public health legislation.
The groups also condemned provisions that would reopen tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship through so called adult publications, point of sale promotions, online advertising and supposedly adult events.
Under the bill, an “adult publication” is defined as one in which people older than 18 constitute 50 per cent or more of the readership.
The coalition said as many as half of the readers could therefore be 18 or younger while the publication could carry advertisements for vapes, heated tobacco products and nicotine pouches.
The groups called the threshold unreasonable and detached from Nigeria’s demographic, citing United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF) reports that more than 60 per cent of Nigerians are below 30, more than 70 per cent are under 35 and 43 per cent are aged 15 or younger.
They also referred to a study by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), which found that 93 per cent of surveyed children aged 11 to 16 and 45 per cent of those aged four to 10 accessed the internet using their own phones.
The coalition said the proposed definition of adult advertising would create a lawful route for tobacco and nicotine advertisements to reach young people through newspapers, magazines, blogs and digital platforms.
It also condemned provisions allowing online purchases, courier deliveries and other remote sales of non-combustible products.
The groups said the 2015 Act prohibits tobacco sales through the mail, internet and other online channels, while the amendment would authorise remote sales of non-combustible products, and added that the bill would further permit their display behind retail counters and allow vaping product sampling inside enclosed points of sale.
“The industry could advertise online, display and sample products in shops, and deliver them to consumers’ homes. The assumption that the age verification checks mandated in the bill will protect children and vulnerables is laughable,” the groups said.
They said research had repeatedly shown that digital checks could be bypassed by clicking an age popup, borrowing identity documents, placing orders through third parties or having deliveries collected by someone other than the buyer.
“Nigeria also lacks an enforcement system capable of monitoring every social media advertisement, online transaction, retail display or courier delivery,” the groups warned.
They said the bill would therefore open channels that regulators would struggle to control after products had entered homes, schools and communities.
The coalition further argued that the bill weakened packaging, warning and enforcement standards.
Section 15(5) of the 2015 Act requires smoked tobacco products to be sold in intact packages containing at least 20 sticks. The groups said the amendment retained the 20 stick minimum for cigarettes while allowing cigars to be sold in packs of five.
They argued that this would place cigars on the market in smaller and potentially cheaper packs, increasing their affordability and accessibility.
The coalition also said the bill restricted nicotine pouch packaging to a text only warning covering no more than 10 per cent of the front, while exempting vaping and tobacco heating devices from carrying health warnings.
It said the bill also deleted important penalty language from the principal Act, creating uncertainty around the consequences of violations.
The groups further objected to provisions allowing tobacco and nicotine companies to designate product information as “trade secrets”.
They said the bill would legally require the Minister of Health to keep such disclosures secret, preventing independent public health experts, researchers and civil society from evaluating the chemical safety and hazards of the products.
The coalition described this as a departure from the existing duty to make reports public under the 2015 law and said it violated the Freedom of Information Act.
It also said the bill would give the Minister of Health authority to exempt non combustible products from statutory rules under an undefined “public interest” ground.
The groups argued that the broad discretionary powers could open doors for corporate lobbying and regulatory capture.
“Public health cannot be safeguarded by permitting entities profiting from addiction and ill health to conceal details of their products behind claims of confidentiality,” the statement said.
The coalition also rejected the insertion of “tobacco harm reduction objectives” into Nigerian law, arguing that marketing products as less harmful than cigarettes does not make them harmless or entitle them to a health endorsement.
The organisations questioned the process through which the bill had advanced.
“Who reviewed this text? Which national institutions cleared it?” they asked.
They said it was impossible to understand how legislation could claim to strengthen tobacco control while weakening public health warnings, eroding existing penalties and lifting the ban on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.
In a statement by Robert Egbe for CAPPA, the groups demanded public disclosure of every version of the bill, all committee reports, public hearing records, stakeholder memoranda, voting records and related correspondence.
They also questioned whether the substantially expanded consolidated bill, including its new Third Schedule, had undergone any meaningful public consultation, arguing that a hearing on an earlier version could not substitute for scrutiny of a materially different text.
The coalition urged the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to clarify its position on the bill.
It said that if the ministry had been bypassed, it must demand a recall, while if it had cleared the text, it must explain how the provisions align with Nigeria’s treaty obligations and public health interests.
Similar calls were directed to the Attorney General of the Federation, national regulators and the National Tobacco Control Committee.
Should the bill reach President Tinubu, the coalition said he must withhold assent and return it with firm objections.
“Renewed hope for the tobacco and nicotine industry cannot advance the Presidency’s Renewed Hope agenda for Nigerians,” it said.
JKNewsMedia.com also reports that the groups maintained that all tobacco and nicotine products must be regulated under one strong, product neutral framework.
They said advertising, promotion, sponsorship, retail displays, promotional sampling and remote sales should remain prohibited, while product assessments must be independent, warnings strong and consistent, and penalties clear and enforceable.
In a joint statement signed by the NTCAl, Corporate Accountability and Public Participation in Africa (CAPPA), Gatefield Impact, Youth Coalition Against Cancer, Nigerian Cancer Society, Call Off Cancer Initiative, Association of Resident Doctors, Abuja, A New Thing International Foundation, Oncology Nursing Society of Nigeria, Development Initiative for Society Health, Centre for Youth Inclusion and Development, and Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre; the coalition called on health professionals, civil society organisations, the media, development partners and Nigerians to support efforts to safeguard the integrity of the National Tobacco Control Act.
“This bill is a grave error. It must be recalled, rejected and stopped,” the statement concluded.
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