Excerpts of the speech given by Betty at the launch of “Tobacco and You” October 9, 2007
My dear ladies and gentlemen of the press,
I must say I’m very delighted to be saddled with the responsibility toCompose Post be presenter of Tobacco and You, a radio programme produced by the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria in collaboration with the Nigeria Tobacco Control Alliance (NTCA).
It will feature interviews with medical experts, tobacco control activists, government personnel, and interestingly, former cigarette addicts, among others, to highlight the dangers of tobacco smoking.
It will also be aired on the FRCN stations in three major cities namely Metro FM-Lagos, Kapital FM, Abuja and Pyramid FM, Kano.
I’m thrilled, not only because it is the first of such in the country, but because it is a great opportunity for me to contribute meaningfully to this very timely public health advocacy issue--tobacco control. It is our hope that the right audience, including smokers and policy makers, will be reached and our objective of a tobacco-free society attained.
I
am indeed very grateful to my bosses Nnimmo Bassey, ERA’s executive
director, and Akinbode Oluwafemi, programme manager for their belief in
me. I sense that God used Mr. Oluwafemi who is also the national
coordinator of the NTCA (whom I chose to tag ‘the generalissimo of the
Nigerian tobacco warfare’), to bring out a hidden potential in
me--broadcasting. By this, ERA/FoEN and the NTCA are not only
entrusting me with a life-saving assignment, but also opening a new
vista of my life. I have been a writer all my life, but now, I’ll have
to explore my voice to fight what has since become a cancerous invasion
of our national health. Through the power of the spoken word, the
awesome power of radio, we believe that many Nigerian youths and adults
alike would be rescued from the destructive manipulations of the
tobacco multinationals, who now seek us as preys as they lose their
footholds in the West. Many will see the light and both government and
families can escape the pains of tobacco-induced diseases and
unnecessary death.
According
to the World health organization (WHO), every year, tobacco kills
approximately 5.5 million globally, 70 per cent of them in developing
countries. By 2030, the figure is expected to jump to 10 million.
Already, from official statistics, 17 per cent of Nigerians are hooked
on the killer product. Some of us feel that we have too much at hand
and need not add an additional tobacco burden.
As
journalists and as tobacco control advocates, we can be the voice of
reason in this generation, saying government has no business signing
MOU’s to burden its citizenry with an industry of death and deceit in
the name of foreign investors.
On
a personal level, my full ‘induction’ into the tobacco war began
sometime last year, while on a six-month media fellowship in the USA,
the Alfred Friendly Press Fellowships (AFPF). In the course of the
AFPF, I was awarded the John Knight Health Reporting Fellowship which
saw me undergoing a one-week boot camp at the Centre for
Diseases Control and Prevention, CDC, in Atlanta, Georgia. I was
particularly stirred by the class on the health implications of tobacco
smoking taken by Mr. Thomas G. Glynn of the American Cancer Society.
The statistics of the case study were both grim and unsettling: China
tops the list of the world’s ‘smoking
pandemic areas’ with 67 per cent of the male and 4 percent of the
female population as active smokers, totaling 350 million out of the
1.3 billion total population. One million Chinese die every year from
smoking-related diseases, notably lung cancer and heart diseases. I
wondered endlessly; ‘will Nigeria get to this point one day?’ What can
be done?
On my return home, I did a series of tobacco stories in TELL
Magazine. It also coincided with a time that ERA and the NTCA were, in
historic moves, slugging it out with the tobacco multinationals in
court. Naturally, our paths crossed. I decided to join the advocacy
train full-throttle. The rest, I’m sure, will be anti-tobacco history…
……Come, then, let us, with one spirit and with diverse tools, stub out this evil flame before it consumes us all.
Let’s put this rampaging demon where it belongs--in the ashtray of history.
Thank you and God bless,
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