Abuja, Lagos and Calabar have been selected as the pilot cities for the urban transport mobility project, an initiative of the World Bank.
Calabar, in Cross River State, eastern Nigeria, is one of the three cities selected to pilot the urban transport mobility project in Nigeria
Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, who made the disclosure on Monday, June 11, 2018 in Abuja, said that the ministry would partner with the World Bank and other relevant stakeholders on how to effectively integrate urban transport mobility in the three pioneer cities in Nigeria.
Amaechi spoke at the Urban Transport and Mobility Stakeholders Forum, sponsored by World Bank under the Africa Transport Policy Programme (SSATP).
Amaechi, who was represented by Dr Anthonia Ekpa, Director, Road Transport and Mass Transit Administration, said that the programme was funded by World Bank under one of its transport policy programme.
He said that Nigeria is a member of SSATP, which comprises 41 countries that will carry out an integrated study on urban transport and mobility.
“This forum of stakeholders on Urban Transport and Mobility is focusing on sustainable mobility and accessibility policy in cities of Nigeria.
According to him, the purpose of the programme is to bring together major stakeholders in Nigeria to discuss the imperatives of having our cities modernised and in compliance with the best practices.
“We want to see how transportation in the cities can be effective and how it can be implemented to improve the transport system.
“The forum is organised to hear from stakeholders their perceptive.
“On the issue of mobility and we are not just talking about cars only, but how can we bring cars and people to integrate effectively, which is a global meeting.”
Mr Zemedkun Tessema, Senior Transport Specialist, SSATP Africa Transport Policy Programme, said that it was assisting countries policy in transport mobility.
He said that the programme was not to replace what government was doing but to complement their efforts through institutional building and sustainable financing.
Tessema, however, said that it was focusing on policies to create an advance transport mobility system in African looking at both primary and secondary cities.
At a Vatican conference at the week-end, Pope Francis has urged oil executives and energy leaders to rapidly transition to clean fuels in order to avert climate disaster.
Pope Francis
The head of the Catholic Church said rising greenhouse gas levels were “disturbing and a cause for real concern”.
Aside from the alarming amount of atmospheric greenhouse gases, Pope Francis said, “Even more worrying is the continued search for new fossil fuel reserves, whereas the Paris Agreement clearly urged keeping most fossil fuels underground.”
Around 80% of fossil fuel reserves would need to be kept in the ground for the international community to reach its goal of staying below a maximum two degrees Celsius global average temperature rise, the central objective of the historic Paris Climate Change Agreement.
In a similar message to the 2015 Laudato Si’ (Praised Be) letter to Catholics on climate change, Pope Francis called on energy leaders in to show care for “our common home”.
The Laudato Si’ encyclical, published just months ahead of the Paris UN Climate Change Conference in France at which the Paris Agreement was inked, is credited with providing key momentum for the successful clinching of the agreement, as it convinced millions of Catholics world-wide of the urgency to act.
UN Climate Chief, Patricia Espinosa, praised the efforts of Pope Francis in a tweet on Sunday, June 10, 2018. “Thank you @Pontifex Francis for providing strong spiritual guidance on the need to take decisive #ClimateAction by quickly and decisively transitioning to #CleanEnergy,” she wrote.
Vatican Seeks Dialogue with the Oil Industry and investors
The conference, which was held on Saturday, June 9 at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, brought oil executives together with investors and Vatican experts who back the scientific evidence that climate change is caused by human activity.
Advocating for a faster transition to clean energy, Pope Francis said, “We need to talk together – industry, investors, researchers and consumers – about transition and the search for alternatives. Civilisation requires energy, but energy use must not destroy civilisation!”
The Catholic leader said that the effects of climate change are not evenly distributed. In fact, it is the poor who suffer most from the consequences of climate change such as agricultural sector disruptions, water insecurity and exposure to extreme weather events.
Many of the world’s poor are being forced to migrate from their homes to less welcoming places because of climate change. A world bank report projects that without concrete climate and development action, over 143 million people could be forced to move within their own countries to escape the impacts of climate change.
Further, the report states that internal climate migration will likely rise through 2050 and then accelerate unless there are significant cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and robust development action.
Pope Francis said that the transition to accessible and clean energy is a “duty that we owe towards millions of our brothers and sisters around the world, poorer countries and generations yet to come.”
“Hence the need to devise a long-term global strategy able to provide energy security and, by laying down precise commitments to meet the problem of climate change, to encourage economic stability, public health, the protection of the environment and integral human development,” he added.
The pope acknowledged that the demand for energy cannot be satisfied at the cost of the environment.
“Our desire to ensure energy for all must not lead to the undesired effect of a spiral of extreme climate changes due to a catastrophic rise in global temperatures, harsher environments and increased levels of poverty,” he said.
The oil and gas industry has come under growing pressure from investors and activists to play a bigger role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions to meet goals set out in the Paris Agreement.
Neil Thorns, director of advocacy at Catholic aid agency CAFOD, welcomed the Pope “preaching to the not-yet-converted”.
“Francis reminds us in his encyclical that ‘Business is a noble vocation’, but also asks why anyone would want to be remembered for failing to act when the world’s poorest people are being pushed deeper into poverty by climate change. It’s a question fossil fuel executives would do well to ask themselves,” he said.
“If energy companies are serious about caring for our common home, they need to take the Pope’s advice and hurry up with shifting their priorities – and therefore their money – from fossil fuels to renewables.”
Among the 50 participants were Darren Woods, CEO of ExxonMobil; Claudio Descalzi, head of Italy’s ENI; Bob Dudley of BP; Eldar Saetre, CEO of Norwegian oil firm Equinor (formerly called Statoil); Vicki Hollub of Occidental Petroleum; and investors including Larry Fink of BlackRock.
The Adamawa State Ministry of Health has confirmed 19 new cases of cholera in Mubi North and Mubi South Local Government areas.
Governor Bindo Umaru Jibrilla of Adamawa State
A statement on Monday, June 11, 2018 by the Information Officer of the ministry, Mr Mohammed Abubakar, said that 16 of the new cases were recorded in Mubi South while three were reported in Mubi South.
Abubakar said that, so far, a total of 1,227 cases were recorded within the past one month with 20 deaths while 19 patients were still on admission at the treatment centre in Mubi General Hospital as at Sunday, June 10.
He said Hong local government has five cases without death, Maiha local government has three cases without death, Mubi North has 526 cases with 11 deaths, while Mubi South has 693 cases with nine deaths.
The Pacific Northwest is the home to the states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. Washington State has its largest city, Seattle, in the very heart of the King County. The city of Seattle is bordered by a body of salt water (Puget Sound) to the west and a freshwater lake (Lake Washington) to the east. It’s interesting to know that both Puget Sound and Lake Washington were carved by glaciers.
EarthCorps International Exchange Fellows
EarthCorps is a non-profit organisation, located in Magnuson Park, Seattle, Washington. It was established by a nature-loving Peace Corps volunteer, named Dwight Wilson. Wilson saw the need to urgently take action in restoring Seattle’s large urban forests from destruction by invasive weeds and, in 1993, he and some other friends took action in an experimental programme named Cascadia Quest. The corps programme was born when this effort grew into a year-round intensive service for futuristic young leaders.
More so, 25 years later, I am happy to say that EarthCorps is pushing boundaries by innovating ecological practice, evolving how people learn leadership, and engaging diverse communities in hands-on environmental restoration activities. Indeed, this foot is achieved with the effort of hardworking volunteers (International and AmeriCorps), staffs and sponsors!
It’s on record that EarthCorps opens an application window every year, around August, for environmentalists and environmental workers in all parts of the world who have proved to have some field working experience to be a part of a global community of people helping to restore the health of our environment, in Seattle, Washington.
Yours sincerely, Surajdeen Alabede, from Nigeria, is one of the international volunteer corps members selected to participate in this year’s exercise. Both the International and United States’ (AmeriCorps) volunteers will be on the field to exchange perspectives, learn through service and to remove invasive weed and plant native trees.
The International Corps Members are expected to return home after a six-month (June to December) field-based service-learning programme to implement projects and share what they have learned with their organisations and communities.
It has been an inspiring experience meeting with other participants from countries like Kenya, Cameroon, Georgia, Philippines, Brazil, Indian and the United States. We all left our various countries to the United States with a common goal of changing the world by restoring the health of our damaged environment.
The first week of the programme has been productive, learning about the organisation’s culture, leadership philosophy, ecological restoration, cross-cultural communication, cultural adaptation, safety techniques, tool use and Pacific Northwest history and ecology.
Lindsey, an EarthCorps worker, did justice to the ecological restoration topic. And it’s amazing to know that the English Ivy and Himalayan Blackberry have been the most aggressive invasive species of plant found in this region and they have done lots of damages to our environment. It takes a huge effort removing them and installing native plants like the conifers and maples.
Native plants installed help to enhance the aesthetic value of the city, attract native birds and butterfly species, that is, a good function is created by putting the right ecological structure in place.
The safety class covers the need to be safety conscious all the time. Paula, the safety instructor, made it known that Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) should not be toyed with and proper ergonomics must be maintained at all times when going to the field for restoration exercise.
I would love to close this week’s episode of my writing with one of the beautiful lines of the organisation’s leadership philosophy that reads, “Everyone can grow to be an effective leader.” Truly, effective leaders are not born, but rather made, through the way they handle things and deal with people around them.
Till next week when I come your way again, always keep eyes on this space!
By Alabede Surajdeen (Environmental International Exchange Fellow at EarthCorps, Seattle, Washington, USA; alabedekayode@gmail.com, @BabsSuraj)
Permit me to say that environmental pollution, especially plastic pollution, has become a huge threat to the living environment, and the human health is not an exception. Evidence has shown that one-third of the plastic packaging that did not end in the landfill can circle the Earth as many as four times in a single year.
Plastic pollution
Plastic pollution has been noted to cause mortality of about one million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals every year. Considering the impact of pollution on the environment, it becomes imperative that we take concise actions in addressing it.
Indiscriminate disposal of plastic waste affects the health of the environment in no small measure. Most used plastics litter the streets of most cities especially in developing countries where a waste management structure is often not in place. This litter of plastics pollute the natural environment, as well as reduces the aesthetics of our cities. In addition, plastic pollution is a major cause of ocean pollution.
Evidence has shown that about 13 million tons of plastic wastes leak into our oceans. This causes a huge threat to biodiversity as it severely threatens marine wildlife. It saddens the heart to see how the marine ecosystem is being upset by the poor man-environment interaction.
Beyond the deleterious effect on the environment, plastic pollution affects human health in no little way. Various research works have studied the impact of plastics on public health with overwhelming shreds of evidence. Plastics are often made of different kinds of chemicals and in various quantities. Many of these chemicals are of various concerns to the health of humans. When the plastics degrade in the environment, they often find their way to the food web and waterways where they can inadvertently enter our system (body), resulting in various health challenges.
From the above, it is evident that plastic pollution is a serious concern both to the health of the environment and humans. It becomes necessary to have concerted measures to address this growing scourge. To address the effect of plastic pollution, we must be ready to walk the talk by changing our attitude towards plastic waste disposal.
Proper waste handling awareness and sensitisation programmes should be staged with the aim of changing people’s behaviour. The government should improve plastic waste collection and processing systems so as to improve citizens’ participation in the problem-solving process.
The good news is that many plastic wastes can be recycled. This means that we can reduce the number of plastic wastes that end up in our environment. Recycling of plastics also opens a viable window of business opportunity. In addition to this, government at all levels can also promulgate strict laws on plastic usage and waste disposal.
In conclusion, it is the responsibility of all to break-up with disposable plastics if it can’t be re-used. Let us beat plastic pollution by preserving public and environmental health. It is high time we said “NO” to plastic pollution!
By Alabede Surajdeen Kayode (Environmental International Exchange Fellow at EarthCorps, Seattle, Washington, USA)
A pollution expert, Dr Tunde Odesanya, has raised an alarm over the danger inherent in the capping of the Olusosun landfill as contemplated by the Lagos State Government.
Capping at the Olusosun dumpsite in Lagos
Odesanya, the Ag. Dean, College of Pure and Applied Sciences, Caleb University, Imota, Lagos, gave the insight in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday, June 10, 2018.
According to him, capping the site is not the best solution for preventing a potential gas explosion in the area.
He said the landfill generates a lot of methane gas which is dangerous and must be trapped before capping the area.
“Capping this Olusosun, in my own opinion, is not the best thing to do, because realistically when you have a landfill, a lot of methane gas is generated.
“That methane gas we are now packing them and putting them under some lead because they (LASG) are sealing off the place.
“Methane is what we use for our cooking, so they can actually explode and you have them nearly capped now; overtime they must explode.
“They are planning to do a recreational centre there and I think that is the worst thing they can do. One day, that thing must revolt.
“We can see what is happening right now in Hawaii, in the U.S.
“The volcano had been docile for a long time, suddenly, it just erupted. Now it’s driving people out of their environment.
“Olusosun had tried to do that before, but it’s going to do that in a way we don’t expect it.
“So we think that Lagos State Government should not just cap Olusosun.
“The ideal thing is to, first of all, degas that area and ensure that no gases are sealed under.’’
Odesanya told NAN that the College’s Centre for Pollution Research had worked with the previous administration in assessing land, water and air pollution in Lagos state.
He said that the aim of the research centre was to be able to determine the level of pollution across the nation, using Lagos State as the first point of call.
“We have mapped out Lagos State into five different zones and our intention is to make sure we can predict the pollution level of these zones, depending on various parameters,” he said.
Odesanya, however, said that the centre was limited by funding, as the present administration had not continued the collaboration.
“Unfortunately, the present Lagos State Government has not continued the collaboration and pollution study is very expensive.
“So, funding has been inhering research activities of the centre.’’
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Monday, June 11, 2018 expressed concern over the low attention and investment in the sanitation sector in Nigeria.
Ms Mainga Banda, a UNICEF Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Specialist, spoke at the opening of a Media Dialogue on WASH in Awka, Anambra State.
It was organised by UNICEF in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Information.
Banda said that access to WASH in the country was critical as its absence affects health, nutrition and education.
She said that Nigeria was among the top three countries practicing open defecation, stressing the need for increased investment to reverse this trend.
Banda said it was saddening to note that 75.8 per cent of people practicing open defecation was in the rural areas.
She called for sustainable ways to close the gaps toward ensuring that everyone has access to improved sanitation and hygiene.
The specialist observed that much impact has not been seen in the 15 years of intervention, as many people were still practicing open defecation.
Banda urged the stakeholders to do more to scale up interventions in hygiene promotion.
She said that UNICEF was working with WASH committees, especially in the rural areas to scale up access to WASH through the use of Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS).
The WASH specialist said that with availability of toilets, behaviour change would occur and people would also understand the importance of scaling up hygiene promotion practices.
“It is important for Nigeria to invest in WASH, if the country would meet the Sustainable Development Goals before 2030.
“Access to WASH has a great impact on health, education and nutrition; we must do more to better our lives,” Banda said.
She said there was need for promotion of safely managed excreta, adding it involves the need to ensure that toilets were covered at all times with fly proof items.
Contributing, Mr Olumide Osanyinpeju, the Head, Child Rights Information Bureau, Federal Ministry of Information, urged the media to advocate improved access to water and sanitation, especially in the rural areas.
Osanyinpeju said that concerted efforts were needed by all to support the provision of safe drinking water for all Nigerians, noting that access to water and sanitation means inclusive development for all.
He commended UNICEF and EU for being at the fore-front in ensuring that every Nigerian has access to potable water and sanitation.
Nigeria and the Kingdom of Morocco on Monday, June 11, 2018 signed three agreements, which included a regional gas pipeline that will see Nigeria providing gas to countries in the West African sub-region that extend to Morocco and Europe.
Nigerian and Moroccan officials signing the agreements
This information is contained in a statement by Malam Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, in Abuja on Monday, June 11, 2018.
The presidential aide revealed that the signing of the agreements was witnessed by President Muhammadu Buhari and the King of Morocco, His Majesty King Mohammed VI.
He said that the agreements was a result of a meeting between the two African leaders focused on strengthening economic relations in gas resource development, global investments and agricultural training and management.
Shehu explained that feasibility study of the agreement on the pipeline would be concluded by July 2018, while construction of the pipeline would be phased based on needs of countries over the next 25 years.
He added that the gas resource development agreement was signed by the Group General Manager, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mr Farouq Garba, and Mrs Amina Benkhadra, Director General of the National Office of Hydrocarbon and Mines.
The 5,660 km long Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline (NMGP) will reduce gas flaring in Nigeria, encourage diversification of energy resources and cut down poverty through the creation of more job opportunities.
The NMGP will further encourage utilisation of gas in the sub-region for cooking, and discourage desertification.
Shehu also said that the two countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the development of a chemical plant in Nigeria for producing ammonia and its derivatives.
The agreement was signed by the Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria Sovereign Wealth Authority, Mr Uche Orji and the Chief Executive Officer of the Office of the Management of Phosphate in Morocco, Mr Mostafa Terrab.
Similarly, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh and his Moroccan counterpart, Mr Aziz Akhannouch, signed a cooperation agreement on vocational training and technical supervision of agricultural workers.
The agreement is expected to enhance local skills on better management of agricultural outfits in Nigeria.
The statement maintained that President Buhari, who was received by a large crowd from the airport to the Rabat Royal Palace, assured King of Morocco of Nigeria’s full commitment to the actualisation of all the agreements.
Hunger and population outgrowing food supply have been an age-long issue. The English scholar and cleric, Thomas Malthus, raised the issue in 1798, in his now famous Malthusian Theory of Population.
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh
The cleric espoused his theory in his writings, “An Essay on the Principle of Population’’.
The Malthusian Theory of Population is a theory of exponential population growth and arithmetic food supply growth.
Malthus argued that because there will be higher population than the availability of food, many people will die from the shortage of food.
He theorised that this correction will take place in the form of Positive Checks (or Natural Checks) and Preventative Checks.
These checks would lead to the Malthusian catastrophe, which would bring the population level back to a ‘sustainable level’.
Mankind has not allowed the Malthusian catastrophe to occur, but has continued to strive to apply scientific methods to boost agricultural production.
In spite of advances in the sciences; food insecurity remains a global problem.
However, experts say that if mankind embraces biotechnology, hunger would be conquered and there would be no fear of the Malthusian catastrophe as agriculture based on biotechnology is sustainable.
They also say that biotechnology has lower environmental impact than traditional agriculture due to the reduction of carbon emissions through direct seeding.
Also, genetically modified crops help poorer farmers because with more resistant seeds, they have better harvests and sell their product better.
They also say that farmers need less input to take care of their crops, while most genetically modified foods are grown with fewer pesticides.
They also say that by creating more pest-resistant plants, the need to use pesticides to protect crops is reduced.
The productivity in genetically modified crops is estimated at between 7 per cent and 20 per cent higher than in traditional agriculture, and 33 per cent higher than organic crops.
On the advantages of biotechnology, former U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said: “Biotechnology allows farmers to grow more food on less land using farming practices that are environmentally sustainable.
“Through biotechnology, seeds yield more per hectare, plants naturally resist specific insect pests and diseases and farming techniques improve soil conservation.
“Farmers and ranchers can help plants and animals fight diseases and adapt to environmental stress and climate change.
“We can enhance the nutritional content of foods and improve human health through plant- and animal-produced therapies.
“The benefits of biotechnology are especially meaningful at a time when our global population is growing and our demand for food is increasing, especially in developing countries.’’
The Federal Government aware of the importance of biotechnology in national development, in April 2001, approved the establishment of National Biotechnology Policy.
The policy led to the establishment of the National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA) in November 2001.
NABDA has the mandate: “To make biotechnology an engine of growth for socio-economic development of Nigeria.
“To promote biotechnology activities that positively respond to national aspirations on food security, job/wealth creation, affordable healthcare delivery and sustainable environment, among others.
NABDA has lived up to its mandate, and the overseeing Director General of the Agency, Mr Oguntunde Abayomi, has sustained and boosted the tempo.
At a South-West Sensitisation programme of the Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB), held in Abeokuta recently, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, stressed the need to embrace innovative advances such as biotechnology in agriculture.
The former president said if properly developed, biotechnology would bring an end to hunger across the globe.
Obasanjo said that something urgent needed to be done to boost agricultural yields, as the world’s population was expected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050.
He noted that biotechnology had the potential to increase agricultural productivity, move agriculture away from dependence on chemical inputs and help to reduce environmental problems.
Obasanjo said that biotechnology was taking mankind beyond the depths of understanding of chemical and physical possibilities.
He stressed that agriculture occupied a strategic position in global efforts to address issues of hunger and diseases.
“Deliberate efforts should be made on the part of government to encourage scientific incursion into agriculture via policy measures specifically designed to encourage research and development and the adoption of new technologies.
“I’m excited that OFAB has presented a formidable platform for dialogue on the transformation of agriculture through quality information dissemination on agricultural biotechnology in Africa,’’ he added.
Abayomi said that the event was timely as Nigeria and other African countries were adopting improved agricultural technologies for food security.
At a roundtable on biotechnology organised recently by NABDA, speakers stressed the need to embrace biotechnology in order to achieve food sufficiency.
They said that the country risked full blown famine if it continued to rely on traditional agriculture
One of the speakers, Prof. Akinola Hassan, explained that “people are talking about organic agriculture; biotechnology is not confronting organic agriculture, both of them go hand in hand.
“What we are having is ignorance; that’s where education comes in.”
Hassan, a professor of Genetics at Uthman Danfodio University, Sokoto, described the campaign against genetically modified organisms (foods) as mere propaganda.
“GMOs don’t kill, they are not dangerous to health; the Federal Government is talking about green alternatives.
“They are saying that they want foods to be produced in safe manner; and that can be achieved through the use of GMO.”
Luckily some political leaders are already pushing for the application of biotechnology in the development of improved seedlings in order to boost agricultural yields.
One of them Gov. Willie Obiano of Anambra State, spoke recently in Abuja at the official launch of the Agriculture Promotion Policy 2016-2020, by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Obiano, represented by his deputy, Dr Nkem Okeke, said scientific applications would make agriculture more interesting for farmers.
The governor said: “We need seedlings that will give better yields.
“Anambra is the smallest state in Nigeria in terms of landmass and it is even getting smaller because of erosion that is destroying our land.
“We need to have seedlings that will give better yields so that instead of 1,000 tonnes of rice per hectare; you may have it yield 4,000 to 5,000 tonnes of rice per hectare.”
Obiano’s position was in line with the advice of Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO).
According to FAO, “Feeding a world population of 9.1billion in 2050 will require raising overall food production by 70 per cent (nearly 100 per cent in developing countries).’’
The Federal Government, by adopting the National Biotechnology Policy has acknowledged its importance in the fight against hunger and poverty.
NABDA, the body charged with the task of developing the sector, should be given all the encouragement to enable it to deliver on its mandate.
Happily, Oguntunde, the Overseeing Director-General since Jan.8, 2018, pending the appointment of a substantive director- general, has brought transformation to the Agency.
Before he assumed office at NABDA, he was the Director, Bioresources in the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, and supervising Director of NABDA.
Besides staff training, he renovated the medical biotechnology laboratory, green houses and agricultural biotechnology laboratories and constructed additional fish ponds.
His speech during the March for Science in Abuja, on April 14, was indicative that with the needed support, NABDA would play vital roles in advancing agricultural biotechnology to boost food security.
Quoting the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnay Onu, Abayomi said:
“With a strong and diversified economy driven by science, technology and innovation, our citizens will be happy and proud to remain at home to pursue their happiness and contribute meaningfully to economic development.”
Experts and stakeholders say that approval of the National Biotechnology Policy showed the commitment of the Federal Government to boost food security through science and innovation.
They stressed the need to sufficiently fund NABDA to enable the Agency deliver on its mandate.
Tobacco harm reduction products are facing opposition from many quarters in Africa, despite sufficient and mounting evidence that they are far safer alternative to smoking combustible cigarettes. Being a developing continent with a struggling public healthcare system and massive tobacco health burden of over half a million tobacco-related deaths every year, Africa could do well to adopt preventive measures in the form of tobacco harm reduction.
According to scientists, tobacco smoking is dangerous to health
However, a deadly combination of misinformation and vested interests is pulling countries in Africa towards prohibition. Several African countries have banned electronic cigarettes under state laws, while the more African governments have publicly declared their intention to follow suit with national bans.
While it is a fact that smoking declines where harm reduction products are made legal, African governments are banning tobacco harm products while cigarettes remain legal. This is a worrying trend for a region where smoking rates are on the increase. In sub-Saharan Africa, consumption increased by 52% between 1980 and 2016, or 164 billion cigarettes to 250 billion. Lesotho has seen a significant spike in smoking from 15% of its population in 2004 to 54% in 2015.
Low- and middle-income countries represent over 80% of tobacco users and tobacco-related deaths, according to the American Cancer Society and vital strategies. While governments have made appreciable efforts to discourage smokers through taxation and tobacco control measures, the impact has been inadequate for the approximately 80Million Smokers in Africa.
Bottom line is we have conclusive scientific evidence that smoking kills, yet cigarettes are not banned! Harm reduction products like e-cigarettes have been banned in Mauritania for example, a country where, every year, more than 900 of its people are killed by tobacco-caused disease. Still, more than 5,000 children (10-14 years old) and 24,4000 adults (15+ years old) continue to use tobacco each day. Complacency in the face of the tobacco epidemic insulates the tobacco industry in Mauritania and ensures that tobacco’s death toll will grow every year.
Since e-cigarettes are a safer alternative, African government should make informed decisions when it comes to these harm reduction products. They should regulate, not ban! Because there is no combustion, using these devices (“vaping”) is intrinsically less dangerous than cigarettes — 95 percent less harmful, according to Public Health England — and they can help adults to quit smoking.
England’s Royal College of Physicians urged doctors last year to “promote the use of e-cigarettes, NRT [nicotine replacement therapy] and other non-tobacco nicotine products as widely as possible as a substitute for smoking in the UK,” because they provide “nicotine without the smoke.” And Professor Michael Russell, whose research was the foundation for the 1988 U.S. Surgeon General’s report on nicotine addiction, said simply: “People smoke for nicotine but they die from the tar.”
In order for us to witness a significant decline in smoking rates in Africa, as witnessed in many European countries, harm reduction products should not be banned by the Governments, but rather regulated.
