Fighting Big Tobacco: Nigeria sets the pace

A revolution is taking place in Nigeria and in turn the developing world.

A few observers have compared it to the Biblical fight between David and Goliath. For the first time in this part of the world, the Big Tobacco is being challenged.

The stage for this benchmark fight was set on May 2, 2007 when the Lagos State Government (Nigeria’s commercial capital and the country’s second most populous state by the 2006 population) in conjunction with the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) instituted a suit of $ 21,617,605, 885.17 ( about N2,702,200,735,647.17) against British American Tobacco ( Nigeria) Limited, International Tobacco Limited, British American Tobacco Plc, British American Tobacco (Investment) Limited, Philip Morris International, and the Tobacco Institute.

This is the first of such a case to compel tobacco companies pay for the damages their products have wrought on the populace in this part of the world.

In the suit filed at the Lagos High Court, the state government and ERA/FoEN claimed that the defendants recently admitted that tobacco smoking has severe health implications including but not limited to cancer, cardiovascular and pulmonary complications.

The state government is being represented in the suit by the Attorney General, Prof Yemi Osibanjo who is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria.

In the suit, the state government and ERA/FoEN added that in spite of the obvious knowledge of the adverse effects of their products, the defendants have surreptitiously and fraudulently targeted young and underage persons in their advertising and marketing.

This they do through the use of market surveys and sophisticated advertising, such as the use of music, cinema and fashion, to attract and addict young and underage persons to smoking. They also accused the manufacturers of free distribution of cigarettes to children at their events.

According to the suit filed by the state government and the NGO, the manufacturers mandatory health warnings inscribed on cigarettes packs are ineffective as the defendants promote retail sales by the stick which have no such warnings. It added that this retail strategy is also a significant causal factor of youth smoking as it encourages easy access to the products.

The claimants also averred that because of the stricter control of marketing of tobacco in America and other developed economies, the manufacturers have turned their marketing strategies to the less developed world, especially Nigeria with its teeming population.

According to them, “while there is a significant decline in the smoking rates in the developed world with diminishing health concerns, in the developing world such as Nigeria, smoking increases at least by 20% annually.

In Lagos, two persons die daily in the government-run health facilities, from tobacco related diseases.

One significant prayer of the state government in the suit is to restrain the sale of tobacco products in the 1000 metres radius of schools, hospitals, cinemas, playhouses or locations, children's shopping areas, childcare facilities or such other public places across the state.

It is also seeking an order of mandatory injunction to compel the defendants to fund a tobacco control programme to be administered and controlled by an independent third party to be appointed by the Lagos State Government. The tobacco control programme is to be targeted at minors and young persons under18 years old.

The claimants based their action on negligence, public nuisance, restitution, strict liability and conspiracy to commit actionable wrongs, among others by the defendants. It added that the action of the defendant has caused the state government lots of money to treat tobacco related diseases in its health facilities across the state.

According to it, last year alone, there were 9,527 reported cases of tobacco related diseases in Lagos State hospitals and at least N316,000 per month was spent on each of these cases.

According to ERA Executive Director, Nnimmo Bassey “The case is a significant step in tobacco control campaign in Africa. This case will ultimately protect the largely uninformed and addiction- prone consumers in Nigeria from the profit-driven nicotine gassing of our people, and help to reduce poverty by discouraging resource wastage through tobacco intake.

In the same vein, Kano, Gombe and Oyo states have followed in the steps of Lagos State to sue the tobacco firms for accumulated damages.

With these four states suing tobacco manufacturers Nigeria has set a pace for other third world countries to affirm their determination to seek further ban and tighter control on tobacco marketing in the country and the continent in general.

Speaking on the series of suits, Mr Akinbode Oluwafemi, the programme manager of ERA/FoEN said the suit was meant “to recoup public money spent on treating tobacco related ailments as well as secure declarative judgments to protect our children from the tobacco industry.”

According to him, it was time to bring big corporations who have operated in the country to justice for “their wrong doings to Nigerians and the Nigerian environment.” He averred that for a long time tobacco companies in the country have marketed their products to kids and have used the mass media to promote their products.

He said the organisation was in court to make the companies account for their deeds which the companies knew were wrong but kept secret. He said the suits were to seek redress for millions of citizens who have been victims of the deceit of the tobacco industry.