The Nigerian tobacco-control community has rejected a bill seeking to amend the National Tobacco Control Act (NTCA) 2015, describing it as a catastrophic reversal of public-health gains and a wicked attack on young people and future generations.

In a joint statement issued on Thursday, the coalition declared that the bill must not advance, regardless of its current administrative stage after passage through the National Assembly. It called on the relevant legislative committees to withdraw the bill immediately and urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to withhold assent should the text be presented for executive approval.

The coalition argued that the National Tobacco Control Act (Amendment) Bill, 2025 fails to close regulatory gaps or place new tobacco and nicotine products under stricter oversight. Instead, it dismantles core protections and creates a weaker, commercially permissive regime for electronic cigarettes, heated tobacco products, nicotine pouches and other non-combustible products.

The 2015 Act, the groups expressed, was founded on a clear public-health principle: tobacco products are dangerous and highly addictive, requiring absolute restrictions on advertising, promotion, sponsorship, display, and remote accessibility. The amendment bill reverses this 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. The World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) expressly recognises heated tobacco products as tobacco products that must be subjected to full tobacco-control measures.

For Nigeria to enact a statute declaring otherwise would render the nation a laughingstock within the global public-health community. Nigeria should lead Africa, not offer a dangerous precedent for smuggling harmful industry interests into public health legislation.

The groups also condemned provisions reopening 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 at least 50 per cent of the readership. As many as half of its readers could therefore be 18 or younger, yet it could carry advertisements for vapes, heated tobacco products and nicotine pouches.

The coalition called the threshold unreasonable and detached from Nigeria’s demographic. Citing UNICEF reports, it noted 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. It also referred to a study conducted by the Nigerian Communications Commission, which found that 93 per cent of surveyed children aged 11 to 16 and 45 per cent of those aged 4 to 10 accessed the internet using their own phones.

Against this reality, the groups said, the supposed 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.

The coalition described the bill’s other provisions as mind-boggling. While the 2015 Act prohibits tobacco sales through the mail, internet and other online channels, the amendment authorises online purchases, courier deliveries and other remote sales of non-combustible products. It also permits their display behind retail counters and allows sampling of vaping products inside enclosed points of sale. Together, the provisions create a complete commercial chain.

“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 vulnerable people is laughable. Research has repeatedly shown how easily these digital checks are bypassed, whether by simply clicking an age pop-up, 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 bill therefore proposes to open channels that regulators will struggle to control after the products have already entered homes, schools and communities,” the groups warned.

The bill aggravates these public health risks by weakening 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 amendment undermines that standard by retaining the 20-stick minimum for cigarettes while allowing cigars to be sold in packs of only five. This would bring cigars to market in smaller, potentially cheaper packs, increasing their affordability and accessibility.

The bill also restricts 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 themselves from carrying health warnings. It also deletes important penalty language from the principal Act, creating uncertainty around the consequences of violations.

Beyond undermining structural controls, the bill introduces explicit legal mechanisms that shield manufacturers from public scrutiny and accountability. Under these provisions, tobacco and nicotine companies are granted the statutory right to designate any product information as “trade secrets”. The bill then legally obligates the Minister of Health to keep these critical disclosures secret, preventing independent public health experts, researchers, and civil society from evaluating the actual chemical safety and hazards of these products. This is a sad departure from the already existing duty to make reports public under the 2015 law, and in violation of the Freedom of Information Act.

Compounding this secrecy, the bill gives the Minister of Health sweeping executive authority to exempt non-combustible products from statutory rules under an undefined “public interest” ground. The groups said such broad discretionary powers could open the door to corporate lobbying and regulatory capture.

The coalition denounced 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 groups observed that “while governments worldwide are taking decisive action against a looming public health crisis by prohibiting vapes and e-cigarettes, Nigeria’s National Assembly is inexplicably advancing legislation to grant the industry new promotional and distribution channels.”

“Who reviewed this text? Which national institutions cleared it?” the organisations asked. They said it was impossible to understand how legislation could claim to strengthen tobacco control while simultaneously weakening public health warnings, eroding existing penalties, and lifting the ban on Tobacco Advertisement, Promotions and Sponsorship (TAPS).

The groups demanded the public disclosure of every version of the bill, all committee reports, public hearing records, stakeholder memoranda, voting records, and related correspondence. They 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 recalls that the merged draft of the National Tobacco Control Act 2015 amendment bills, originally presented at the November 22, 2024, public hearing, contained nothing remotely close to these vexatious clauses.”

They urged the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to clarify its position on the bill. If the ministry was bypassed, it must demand a recall. If it cleared the text, it must explain how these 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.”

The groups maintained that all tobacco and nicotine products must be regulated under one strong, product-neutral framework. Advertising, promotion, sponsorship, retail displays, promotional sampling and remote sales should remain prohibited. Product assessments must be independent, warnings strong and consistent, and penalties clear and enforceable.

They also called on health professionals, civil society organisations, the media, development partners and all Nigerians to support efforts to safeguard the integrity of the National Tobacco Control Act.

“Protecting public health is a shared responsibility, and every effort must be made to ensure that Nigeria’s tobacco control laws continue to place the health and wellbeing of its people above commercial interests,” the statement concluded. (The Sun)

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