By Emmanuel Onwuka
By 21, Audu had already lost a great deal to tobacco. What
he thought was a cheap adventure became one of his most expensive investments.
He is among the many young Nigerians who live on the fringes of Nigeria’s
administrative capital, Abuja. According to an account published by Premium
Times in May 2026, Audu’s early tobacco use exposed him to respiratory
diseases, which later developed into lung disease that disrupted his education
and prevented him from fully participating in the ordinary experiences of
youth. His story was cited by Dr Pavel Ursu, the World Health Organisation's
(WHO) Nigeria Country Representative, as an illustration of what early tobacco
addiction can do to a young life.
There is something particularly unsettling about Audu's
story. At 21, he was not supposed to be an old man's warning. He was supposed
to be in the middle of becoming one. His experience is a useful starting point
for a conversation about Nigeria's changing nicotine market, as the tobacco
industry is no longer selling only the product most Nigerians recognise as
tobacco. The cigarette, with its smell, smoke and ash, is increasingly sharing
the market with products that look cleaner, more technological and, in some
cases, almost completely disconnected from the image of smoking.
Vapes. Heated tobacco products. Nicotine pouches.
They come in flavours. They fit into pockets. Some resemble
gadgets. Others can be used without producing visible smoke. Their marketing
increasingly speaks the language of technology, lifestyle, choice and, most
importantly, harm reduction.
What happens when an industry whose commercial survival depends
on selling nicotine begins to position itself as part of the solution to the
harms it causes?
That is where Nigeria's tobacco story has grown more
complicated.
And this is why the controversy surrounding the proposed
amendment to the National Tobacco Control Act should not be viewed simply as
another disagreement over a piece of legislation.
The bill is one part of a much bigger story about how the
tobacco industry is changing the way it communicates, the products it sells,
and the allies it cultivates.
The product has changed. So has the pitch.
In 2024, journalists with The
Colonist Report Africa visited markets and major retail outlets in Port
Harcourt and found nicotine-containing disposable vapes openly displayed in
shops and supermarkets. The investigation documented products described as
containing 2 per cent and 5 per cent nicotine, priced from about ₦1,000 to
₦18,000. The journalists also found products imported from Europe, the United
States, China, Canada and Dubai.
The significance of that investigation was not simply that
vapes were available. It was that they were becoming ordinary. They were
sitting on shelves, being sold alongside other consumer products to young
Nigerians.
They were entering spaces where a young person could
encounter them without necessarily recognising the experience as involving the
tobacco industry.
The investigation also found that manufacturers promoted
vaping as a means for smokers to gradually quit. However, the WHO warns that
e-cigarettes have not been proven effective for smoking cessation at the
population level.
Harm reduction is now part of tobacco companies' commercial
strategy. Professor
Best Ordinoha of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital
described treating patients suffering from the effects of vaping, including
couples.
He stated that nicotine affects the brain and heart and that
vaping could cause short- and long-term illness. He described short-term
problems, including throat and mouth irritation, cough and respiratory
infections, while warning that potential long-term effects could take years to
manifest.
In February 2026, Corporate Accountability and Public
Participation Africa published New Smoke Trap, a report based on field
surveillance in Lagos, Enugu and the Federal Capital Territory from October to
December 2025.
The researchers documented 781 tobacco and nicotine-related
products, of which 573 were classified as new and emerging nicotine and tobacco
products. E-cigarettes alone accounted for 522 products. The significance lies
not in the number but in the variety available to consumers.
The products increasingly occupy a distinct cultural space
from cigarettes. CAPPA's researchers documented products that were compact,
flavoured and designed to resemble everyday consumer objects, noting their visibility
in supermarkets, nightlife venues and digital spaces frequented by young
people.
The National Tobacco Control Act (Amendment) Bill, 2025,
which is awaiting the president’s assent, shows that Clause 1 would introduce a
new objective “in consonance with Tobacco Harm Reduction objectives” and cover
the regulation of non-combustible products. The bill also creates a statutory
category of non-combustible products.
Civil society groups have raised concerns about proposed
provisions allowing advertising of non-combustible products in adult
publications, at points of sale, and online, as well as sponsorship of cultural
and social events, and the introduction of the harm reduction objective. They
have also questioned proposed warning requirements and the classification of
heated tobacco products as non-combustible products.
The tobacco industry has a documented history of seeking to
influence policy through direct lobbying, third parties, public-relations
campaigns, corporate social responsibility, research and other forms of
engagement.
Article 5.3 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco
Control (WHO FCTC) exists precisely because governments recognise the
fundamental conflict between the tobacco industry's commercial interests and
public health policy. WHO has been explicit about the industry's use of
harm-reduction rhetoric.
A WHO FCTC presentation in 2025 described harm-reduction
marketing rhetoric as part of a broader industry “redemption narrative” and
warned that the industry was reinventing established tactics to influence
politics, public opinion and science.
Article 5.3 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco
Control also requires countries to protect tobacco-control policies from the
tobacco industry’s commercial and other vested interests.
Its implementation guidelines recommend limiting unnecessary
interactions with tobacco companies, increasing transparency of
government-industry interactions, preventing conflicts of interest,
scrutinising information supplied by the industry, and ensuring that
policymaking is protected from commercial influence.
The Way Forward
Nigeria cannot afford to allow “harm reduction” to become a
means of expanding the nicotine market while the country is still struggling to
enforce existing tobacco-control laws. The priority must be to protect public
health, prevent young people from becoming addicted to nicotine, and ensure
that new products do not create regulatory loopholes that the industry can
exploit.
The president, leaders of the legislature, and other
stakeholders must also subject the proposed National Tobacco Control Act
(Amendment) Bill, 2025, to rigorous, independent scrutiny. Any amendment to the
current law to that seeks to introduce “Tobacco Harm Reduction” as a policy
objective should be halted.
Government must also ensure that tobacco industry interests
do not undermine the enforcement of tobacco-control laws and regulations.
National laws inspired by Article 5.3 of the WHO Framework Convention on
Tobacco Control should guide interactions between public officials and the
tobacco and nicotine industry.
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