From Madu Onuorah (Abuja)

THE Federal Executive Council (FEC) yesterday approved the signing of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, signalling the commencement of more stringent measures aimed at curtailing the supply and demand of tobacco products in the country.

Also, Minister of Information and National Orientation, Chief Chukwuemeka Chikelu disclosed that smoking rate has doubled from the 1990 level of nine per cent to 18 per cent of the population in 2003.

The Council also approved an agreement with Denmark for the avoidance of double taxation between both nations.

Minister of Health, Prof. Eyitayo Lambo, who briefed State House correspondents after the FEC meeting, stated that signing the new framework is a way of stating Nigeria's determination to curtail the effects of smoking.

Specifically, it is aimed at achieving the following:

a comprehensive ban on tobacco advertising and promotion;

increase in taxes on tobacco products;

inscription of bold warnings on tobacco products;

control of environmental effects of smoking; and

provision of alternatives to tobacco growers.

Lambo said: "The provisions of the framework convention on tobacco control have two major parts. The first part deals with the measures that relate to the reduction of the demand for tobacco.

"And things that come under these measures to reduce the demand for tobacco include such things as price and tax measures; some non-price measures including protection from exposure to tobacco smoke, regulation of contents of tobacco products, regulation of tobacco disclosures, packaging and labelling of tobacco products to indicate that tobacco can be hazardous to your health, education, communication, training and public awareness, tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship and lastly the stopping of tobacco smoking."

The supply side, he said, includes addressing the illicit trade in tobacco products, the sale to and by minors, and the provision of support for economically viable alternative activities.

"If you want to get people out of growing and selling tobacco, then you have to find them some alternative things to do in order to keep body and soul together. Let me just emphasise again that the convention framework is an international attempt to deal with this tobacco problem. Tobacco is one of the causes of non-communicable diseases like hypertension, cancer and such diseases that are related to pregnancy."

The World Health Assembly, a meeting of the World Health ministers, met in Geneva in 2003 and adopted the convention.

In order to become operational, all member-states are to sign up on the treaty. Each member-state has been given up to June 29, 2004 to sign.

Today, only 91 out of 192 countries have signed. Nigeria is expected to be the 92th country to sign when Prof. Lambo attends the next meeting of the body in May.

"More than half have signed. What we did today (yesterday) was to present this to Council and to request that Nigeria be a signatory to this very important convention, and council has approved," Lambo said.

Chikelu, who was also part of the briefing alongside the Minister of Education, Prof. Fabian Osuji and the Minister of State for Finance, Mrs. Nenadi Esther Usman, said that the result of the survey on the rate of smoking by Nigerians should give everyone cause for concern.

He added: "A result of the survey carried out by the Ministry of Health showed that in 1990, we had about 9 per cent of Nigerian adults who smoke, but a subsequent survey showed preliminary result of prevalence of 18 per cent. That was very alarming to Council.

"The available statistics already showed that there are about one billion smokers. Of the one billion, 800 million reside in Africa and Asia and the rate of diseases that flow from tobacco smoking is alarming."