Jump to full article: Agence France Presse (AFP) (fr), 2009-07-21
Intro: British American Tobacco Nigeria and the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria on Tuesday expressed their opposition to a proposed anti-tobacco bill to be discussed in parliament.
The bill seeks to ban smoking in public places and forbids persons under the age of 18 to sell and buy tobacco products.
The proposed law, which would amend the 1990 Tobacco Control Laws of Nigeria, also forbids communication between the manufacturers and consumers.
The bill, if passed into law, "will force legal tobacco companies out of business because they will be forced to shut down their operations", a representative of British American Tobacco Nigeria (BATN), Tony Okwoju, told a public hearing, organised by the senate committee on health.
He said that certain provisions in the bill were "either extreme and would have unintended consequences or will only make it difficult or impossible for the legal industry to operate without necessarily achieving the desired objective of reducing the impact of tobacco on public health".
"The effect of passing a law that is not adequately considered is that it will undermine its own intentions by placing tobacco outside of the control of the regulator, thereby leaving those who continue to smoke at the mercy of smugglers," said Okwoju.
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