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There have been repeated campaigns, warning and awareness programmes by health experts, advocacy groups, non-governmental organizations and government agencies against tobacco consumption due to its adverse health effects. Despite all these, millions of smokers in Nigeria have refused to yield to the warning, while tobacco companies and distributors still smile to the bank with huge profits from the tobacco trade.

With over 20 billion sticks of cigarettes consumed annually in Nigeria, many smokers pay with their health, as reports from the World Health Organization (WHO) and other resource centres indicate that millions of smokers die annually in Nigeria from tobacco-related ailments.jan

Cannabis is illegal in Nigeria. Its production, distribution and use are criminalised by local laws. Cultivated mostly in southern Nigeria, the drug is affordable and readily available through street drug-running. Cannabis users are also widely seen as social deviants, and are liable to arrest and imprisonment.

Despite the stigma and danger from the law, the use of cannabis in Nigeria is growing fast. Studies show that it ranks just below alcohol as the second most used psychoactive substance in Nigeria. It is mostly used by people aged 25-39 years.

To state the obvious, smoking kills. Tobacco smoking is the world’s leading preventable cause of premature death. Here in Nigeria, there are at least 11 million smokers, and despite declining prevalence, a fast-growing population means that the actual number of smokers is on the rise. This is especially true of young adults, connected in part to our growing nightlife culture. E-cigarettes were found by the UK’s Royal College of Physicians to be at least 95 percent less harmful than combustible tobacco, [...] But very few smokers in Nigeria are benefiting from this alternative.

Nigeria’s government defied private-sector opposition to impose a new “sin tax” on Monday amid fears that growing tobacco and alcohol consumption could threaten a public health crisis.

Ignoring a last-minute legal challenge, the country’s finance ministry announced that a rise in excise duties had finally come into force, three months after Muhammadu Buhari, the president, was forced by public opposition to delay the hike.