“Involving women in peace and disarmament processes elevates the prospect of their success.”
Those were the words of recipients of the Right Livelihood Award and members of the World Future Council, a statement titled: “Women Leading for Peace” released on Wednesday, May 24, 2017 to commemorate the International Women’s Day for Disarmament and Peace.
Alyn Ware, a Right Livelihood Laureate
“We highlight the success of peace and disarmament initiatives in which women have played an important role, including in Bougainville, Colombia, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Philippines, Sierra Leone, and other regions around the world,” they further stated.
Coming just days after the tragic terrorist bombing in Manchester UK, the statement condemns terrorist acts and any other forms of indiscriminate violence, including the use of nuclear weapons.
“We express concern over the existential threats to humanity and the planet from climate change and the increased threat of nuclear war – a situation which has moved the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists to move the Doomsday Clock to 2½ minutes to midnight.
“The threats to our planet – of climate change, environmental degradation, poverty, terrorism and war – can only be overcome by nations and the global community working in cooperation – something not possible while nations maintain large and expensive militaries and threaten to destroy each other, including with nuclear weapons.”
Business participation and investment in sustainable landscapes is critical for achieving inclusive green growth, according to a new report released recently at the Forest and Landscape Investment Forum.
Sara Scherr, President of EcoAgriculture Partners
The report, titled: “Business for Sustainable Landscapes: An action agenda for sustainable development”, underscores the numerous benefits that business can realise by investing in landscapes – from reducing their environmental and social risks to protecting their assets or sourcing area by supporting vital ecosystems, such as forests, rivers and freshwater.
Businesses increasingly recognise that working in landscape partnerships can help them address critical issues that go beyond their immediate supply chains. Yet, today, only a quarter of the 428 large, multi-stakeholder landscape partnerships surveyed include business.
The report, however, confirms that innovative financial instruments designed to support landscape investments are rapidly emerging, which can help fast-track business engagement in landscape partnerships. These include new blended finance schemes, impact investment funds, investment screens and standards, and investment strategies in sustainable supply chain programmes, among others.
The report, produced by EcoAgriculture Partners, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), SAI Platform and Sustainable Food Lab under the auspices of the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature Initiative, outlines an action agenda with concrete steps that business, as well as finance institutions, governments and landscape programme leaders, can take to strengthen these partnerships and advance a socio-economic transformation based on sustainable production and economic growth.
“Collaborative landscape approaches align stakeholders in a particular place to resolve complex issues that cannot be successfully resolved by actors working alone,” says Sara Scherr, President of EcoAgriculture Partners and one of the key authors of the report. “These partnerships reflect growing recognition that long-term business success is tied to healthy communities and ecosystems,” she added.
“Although landscapes are still not a natural business environment for most companies, the frontrunners are now starting to grasp the potential, take responsibility beyond their direct interests and seek collaborative solutions to address issues like water scarcity, deforestation or ecosystem services by landscape projects,” says Peter Erik Ywema, Director Strategy and Engagement, SAI Platform.
“Innovative financial instruments designed to support landscape investments are emerging, and they have the potential to help drive nature-based solutions, such as forest landscape restoration and climate-smart supply chains,” says Stewart Maginnis, Global Director of IUCN, which co-authored the report. “IUCN’s Regional Forest Landscape Restoration Hub for Eastern and Southern Africa, which was established last year, is an excellent example of how increased coordination at a landscape level can catalyse resources and technical capacity to deliver tangible benefits for communities.”
Local and global business champions, investors, government officials and civil society representatives met this week to discuss these findings and other sustainable landscape opportunities at the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) Forest and Landscape Investment Forum in Kigali, Rwanda.
Some 200 million Chinese users of a digital payment giant are now using an app that gamifies carbon footprint tracking – cutting greenhouse gas emissions and demonstrating the massive potential of Fintech (financial technology) for supporting sustainable development.
Eric Jing, CEO of Ant Financial
A report released on Tuesday, May 30, 2017 by the Green Digital Finance Alliance, which works to make the benefits of greening digital finance a reality, showed that almost half of Ant Financial Services Group’s 450 million users signed up to the first-of-its-kind app in just nine months. To the alliance’s knowledge, this is the largest take-up of a new digital platform over such a short time period.
“Two hundred million people – that’s three percent of the world’s population – are greening their lives because they are getting immediate information about the environmental impact of their choices in a fun and competitive way,” said Erik Solheim, head of UN Environment.
“This shows that digital finance holds a huge untapped power to mobilise people in support of sustainable development and the fight against climate change. And this power is literally at our fingertips through our mobile devices.”
Ant Financial, a leading digital financial services company, tracks purchases made through its Alipay payment platform to award “green energy points” in the Ant Forest Programme. The scoring system is based on how environmentally friendly a purchase is – such as paying a bill online instead of travelling to a store to do it, or buying a metro ticket instead of fuel for a car.
The points allow users to grow virtual trees and, through the in-built social network component, compete with friends.
Released to coincide with a meeting of the G20 platform aimed at throwing the weight of public and private finance behind sustainable development (Greeninvest), the report found that, by the end of January 2017, the approach had avoided 150,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, thanks to the accumulation of small behavior changes, with much more to come.
When enough points have been earned to grow a virtual tree, it is converted into a real tree, planted in the desert in Inner Mongolia. Over one million trees had been planted by the end of January 2017. It is too early to calculate the carbon sink benefits, but they are expected to be significant.
“Increasing pressures on the environment are damaging ecosystems and threatening the lives of millions of people. But the world is fighting back,” said Eric Jing, CEO of Ant Financial. “Emerging digital technologies are enabling a bottom-up approach to the battle – avoiding greenhouse gas emissions gram by gram, bus fare by bus fare, day by day.
“This is essential to complement top-down action, such as the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda on sustainable development. The success of the programme is a sign of the powerful change we can create when people are provided with the opportunity to live a greener life.”
Currently, the world is far short of the trillions of dollars in financing needed to head off climate change and other environmental challenges such as pollution and unrestrained natural resource use. Green finance, including digital, is key to closing this gap.
Green finance is a growing global movement. Countries from China to France and the UK have launched initiatives to boost flows of private capital for climate and sustainability. The G20 has set up a green finance study group. And last year saw the green bond market grow by more than $80 billion to $170 billion – the best showing since its launch in 2007.
But these top-down approaches will not be enough unless ordinary people make changes in their own lives, which is where approaches such as the Ant Forest Programme come in.
“The exciting thing about the Ant Forest Programme is that it makes carbon relevant in online identities,” said Simon Zadek, Co-Director of UN Environment’s Inquiry into the Design of Sustainable Financial System, which serves as the secretariat for the alliance. “It is a whole new way of thinking about carbon markets, and is incredibly relevant for young people and generations going forward.
“This is an early-stage experiment that other businesses and governments can build on. Just imagine the impact we could make on climate change, for example, by rolling out this model – which makes good environmental choices easy, fun and rewarding – across the globe.”
Ant Financial aims to expand the programme to more people in its 450 million user base and turn its carbon-tracking method into an agreed protocol that can be used by other digital platforms.
Along with UN Environment, Ant Financial was a founding partner of the Green Digital Finance Alliance. The alliance is both the first platform looking at the greening of digital finance and the first around global public goods co-founded by a Chinese company.
Golf multiple champion, Tiger Woods, has revealed that alcohol was “not involved” in his arrest while driving in Florida, USA, early on Monday, May 29, 2017.
Tiger Woods
The player, who was charged with Driving Under the Influence (DUI), blamed “an unexpected reaction to prescribed medication”.
Police records show the 41-year-old golfer was pulled over at about 3.00 local time, about 7.00 GMT, near his home in Jupiter and later taken into custody.
He was released from Palm Beach County jail at 10.30 local time.
The record says that Woods was released “on his own recognisance”, meaning he promised in writing to co-operate with future legal proceedings.
“I understand the severity of what I did and I take full responsibility for my actions.
“I want the public to know that alcohol was not involved. What happened was an unexpected reaction to prescribed medications.
“I didn’t realise the mix of medications had affected me so strongly,” he explained.
Woods has been recovering from back surgery. In his most recent comment about his health, he wrote that the surgery had relieved terrible pain and that he hadn’t “felt this good in years”.
Government is ensuring the participation of Nigerians in wildlife enforcement, while limiting conservation to specific areas that does not conflict with the interests of the local communities.
Nature conservation in Nigeria: the Gashaka-Gumti National Park
This is aimed at addressing challenges relating to the fact that conservation areas include the traditional hunting grounds of the communities living around such areas, so as not to deny them their hunting rights.
Furthermore, all revenues earned from hunting licenses and proceeds from the sale of wildlife trophies are being ploughed back into conservation activities.
These measures are said to be part of the actions being undertaken by the authorities to achieve the Aichi Biodiversity Targets 2020.
Developed at the Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Nagoya, Japan in 2010, the Aichi Biodiversity Targets are intended to help countries measure their progress in preventing the loss of biodiversity and improving benefits from biodiversity to society.
According to the CBD, Nigeria is also striving to meet the Targets by ensuring that, while issuing CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) licenses, the export of fauna and flora does not impact on the population of the species concerned.
“There have been cases of breaches of CITES procedures by individuals however, unfortunately, no capacity exists for detecting these breaches.”
It was gathered that invasive alien species that threaten biodiversity and their habitats by displacing original species, spreading diseases, competing for resources, parasitism, have been identified; but that Nigeria has ongoing invasive control projects and programmes in place and has achieved some level of success in implementing actions to address these threats.
Regarding support mechanisms for national implementation of the CBD, the country is said to have developed various strategies and programmes for sustainable management of biodiversity, thereby promoting adequate levels of funding, and integrated human development programmes.
Achievement of some of these strategies has reportedly been realised through the Local Empowerment and Environmental Management Programme (LEEMP), a project designed to empower the rural populace in carrying out actions that protect the environment.
Also, the Department of Forestry in the Federal Ministry of Environment and the State Ministries of the Environment have set up various initiatives to manage and use wetlands and arid zones in the country in a sustainable manner, guiding local communities in this regard in accordance with the LEEMP.
However, the major constraints identified in conserving biodiversity comprise a dearth of trained and skilled manpower and appropriate technologies, as well as inadequate funding for implementing various biodiversity programmes.
In response, the curricula in relevant departments of some universities and institutions of higher learning, discloses Nigeria, have been redesigned to address training in biodiversity conservation for professionals in the country. Some activities have also been conducted in regard to legislation and institutional arrangements and mainstreaming biodiversity into national programmes.
Additionally, Nigeria has integrated biodiversity concerns into its environmental policy, but additional funding is required as is a review of funding strategies for biodiversity conservation to ensure adequate financial allocation to the Federal Ministry of Environment and other relevant establishments.
In this regard, the Federal Government has instructed that a major aspect of the Ecological Fund be directed towards afforestation programmes. Trust funds are used to finance activities for the Ondo, Oyo and Cross River states, while other funding is obtained from multilateral agencies, NGOs, CBOs and the private sector.
Some private organisations, particularly in the petroleum sector, are reportedly incorporating conservation programmes in their operations, even as public agencies are making efforts to mainstream biodiversity conservation in their operations.
The Federal Ministry of Environment is said to be at an advanced stage in establishing an environment desk in each relevant agency and institution in order to ensure compliance with mainstreaming conservation and other environmental issues in their programmes.
Nigeria is also putting in place mechanisms for monitoring and reviewing implementation of the Convention.
For instance, the existing Biodiversity Action Plan is said to have established a framework for the continuous assessment and monitoring of biodiversity and a system for measuring the achievement of the stated targets. Environmental monitoring of conservation plots, agricultural lands, wildlife domestication, aquaculture, and conservation of medicinal plants is also being carried out.
Similarly, notes the CBD, Nigeria has embarked on a review of biodiversity-related laws which is being conducted through a consultative process, involving the Federal Ministry of Justice (FMJ), the Law Review Commission and the Nigerian Institute for Advanced Legal Studies, the Federal Ministry of Environment, the National Assembly and other relevant stakeholders.
The Dangote Group has disclosed that it is investing $1 billion in rice cultivation in five states to boost food self-sufficiency.
A rice farm. Photo credit: www.osundefender.org
The organisation made the disclosure on Monday, May 29, 2017 at the just concluded 2017 Gateway Trade Fair, which was held in Abeokuta, and in respect of which it emerged as the second most patronised exhibitor.
To mark its Day at the Fair, a subsidiary of the Group, Dangote Cement, gave out several tools and implements to the block makers in Ogun State in appreciation of their patronages. Tools such as wheel barrowers, shovels, umbrellas and hand gloves were donated to block makers who assembled from different areas of the state.
During the 10-day trade fair, Dangote Flour gave customers and participants free sampling of its new pasta products. The wet sampling made the Group’s pavilion the centre of activities at the Fair as participants trooped in for their daily meal. Customers were rewarded with branded coolers, kitchen aprons, exercise books and customised ladles.
Commending Dangote Group for its sponsorship and participation at the Fair, President of Ogun State Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (OGUNCCIMA), Mrs. Adesola Adebutu, said the support given by the Group went a long way in making the staging of the Fair a success.
She commended the Pan African Conglomerate for its giant strides in economic development of the country through massive investments in several sectors of the economy describing the feat as worthy of emulation by other Nigerians.
A director of Dangote Group, Tunde Mabogunje, who represented the Group at the special day, said that the partnership with OGUNCCIMA is beneficial as Ogun State is the host of the 12 mmtpa Dangote Cement Plant, Ibese, the second largest cement plant in Nigeria.
Dangote Cement, he said, “through the plant, provides thousands of direct and indirect jobs in the state. As a responsible corporate citizen, we participate fully in all events and activities designed to drive social and economic welfare of the state.”
He described the theme for this year’s Trade Fair: “Promoting Agricultural Value Chain through SMEs for Nigeria Economic Recovery” as being apt, given the nation is now paying attention to Agriculture, which has the potential of becoming the major driver of the economy instead of oil, pointing out that in line with the theme the Group is at the forefront of job creation and is the largest employer of labour outside government.
Mabogunje stated: “We have been contributing our quota to the growth and development of the Nigerian economy. Towards aiding agriculture, we are building a fertiliser plant in the Lekki Free Trade Zone, Lagos State. When completed, farmers will have regular access to fertiliser for their farming activities. The delays and disruptions experienced in waiting for imported fertiliser will cease.”
“We are investing about $1 billion in rice cultivation. We have an outgrowers scheme where thousands of farmers are empowered with improved seeds and items needed to cultivate rice.”
At least 87 countries should systematically account for disaster losses by 2020, which first and foremost constitute losses resulting from the impacts of climate change. This is the central conclusion of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction which ended in Cancun, Mexico on Friday, May 26, 2017.
The UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, Mr. Robert Glasser, speaking at the close of the Global Platform. Photo credit: UNISDR
The year 2020 is the deadline set out in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction for all countries to have such strategies. In the 22 years that have passed since first UN Climate Change Conference (COP1, in 1995 in Berlin) the number of weather and climate related disasters has doubled.
The UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), Mr. Robert Glasser, said: “We can only prove progress on reducing disaster losses if we know accurately what those losses are. Today we heard evidence that these countries are putting data baselines in place and this effort needs intensive support over the next two years.”
Given that 90% of recorded major disasters are climate-related, action that addresses the interlinked challenges of disaster risk, sustainable development and climate change is a core priority.
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is the ultimate form of disaster risk reduction as it prevents the creation of new risk while also reducing the stock of existing risk levels.
The Paris Climate Change Agreement’s overarching goal to limit global average temperature rise to as close as possible to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Adhering to this goal is the greatest long-term contribution that governments, local governments and the private sector can make to disaster risk reduction.
Ahead of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in Cancun, UNISDR chief Glasser and the Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Patricia Espinosa, called for joint action across the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement on climate change to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and address Disaster Risk Reduction.
At the closing plenary, Mr. Glasser paid warm tribute to Mr. Luis Felipe Fuente, national coordinator of the Mexican Civil Protection Agency, and the team which put their heart and soul into ensuring the success of the Global Platform. He also commented on the rich community of practice in disaster risk reduction and its capacity to bridge the worlds of humanitarian aid and development.
The Chair’s Summary contains key recommendations including improved support for the preparation of national disaster loss databases; early warning systems for least developed countries; empowerment of local authorities to manage disaster risk; application of disaster risk management to overall economic planning; and the empowerment of women in leadership on disaster risk management.
Risk-informed investments for the resilience of infrastructure and housing, especially for the poor and vulnerable, was the focus of the Leaders’ Forum co-chaired by the President of Mexico, Mr. Enrique Peña Nieto and the UN Deputy Secretary-General, Ms. Amina Mohammed, which concluded on Wednesday, May 24, 2017.
An overview of the Chair’s Summary was presented by the Mexican Minister for the Interior, Mr. Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, who said the focus of the three days was very much on moving from commitment to action and ensuring coherence across implementation of the Sendai Framework, the Paris Agreement on climate change and other elements of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The Minister hoped that the Global Platform would lead to a worldwide increase in efforts to implement the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.
He also recalled the outcomes of the preparatory days which included a Multi-Hazard Early Warning Conference and a meeting for Small Island Developing States focused on climate change and practical solutions.
Some 4,000 participants and delegations from over 180 countries attended this 5th edition of the Global Platform which was held outside Geneva, Switzerland for the first time and hosted and co-organised with the Mexican government.
It was the first global gathering on disaster risk reduction since the adoption of the Sendai Framework in Sendai, Japan, at a UN world conference in 2015.
Mr. Manuel Bessler, representating the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, paid tribute to the outstanding organisation of the Global Platform by the Mexican government, notably for its inclusive nature and the prominence of private sector participation.
He extended a warm welcome to delegates to attend the 6th edition of the Global Platform in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2019, when the focus would be on progress made in further implementing the Sendai Framework and acting on the recommendations in the Chair’s Summary.
Meeting the world’s agreed climate goals in the most cost-effective way while fostering growth requires countries to set a strong carbon price, with the goal of reaching $40 to $80 per tonne of CO2 by 2020 and $50 to $100 per tonne by 2030. That’s the key conclusion of the High-Level Commission on Carbon Prices, led by Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz and Lord Nicholas Stern.
Joseph Stiglitz and Nicholas Stern, chairs of the High-Level Commission on Carbon Prices
Convened by the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition (CPLC) at Marrakesh in 2016 and supported by the Government of France and the World Bank Group, the Commission brought together 13 leading economists from nine developing and developed countries to identify the range of carbon prices that, together with other supportive policies, would deliver on the Paris climate targets agreed by nearly 200 countries in December 2015.
“The world’s transition to a low-carbon and climate-resilient economy is the story of growth for this century,” said Commission co-chairs Joseph Stiglitz and Nicholas Stern. “We’re already seeing the potential that this transformation represents in terms of more innovation, greater resilience, more livable cities, improved air quality and better health. Our report builds on the growing understanding of the opportunities for carbon pricing, together with other policies, to drive the sustainable growth and poverty reduction which can deliver on the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals.”
While Stiglitz is a Professor at the Columbia University, United States, Stern is IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government and Chair of the Grantham Research Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom.
The Commission’s report, released on Monday, May 29, 2017 in Berlin at the Think20 Summit, concludes that a well-designed carbon price is an indispensable part of a strategy for efficiently reducing greenhouse gas emissions while also fostering growth. It states that a strong and predictable carbon-price trajectory provides a powerful signal to individuals and firms that the future is low carbon, inducing the changes needed in global investment, production, and consumption patterns.
The Commission concluded that a $40 to $80 range in 2020, rising to $50 to $100 by 2030, is consistent with the core objective of the Paris Agreement of keeping temperature rise below 2 degrees. Carbon prices and instruments will differ across countries, and implementation and timetables will depend on the country context. The temperature target remains achievable with lower near-term carbon prices if complemented by other policies and instruments and followed by higher carbon prices later. However, this may increase the aggregate cost of the transition.
The Commission noted the importance of complementing carbon pricing with a range of well-designed policies to promote energy efficiency, renewable energy, innovation and technological development, long-term investment in sustainable infrastructure, as well as measures to support the population in the transition to low-carbon growth.
“Specific carbon price levels will need to be tailored to country conditions and policy choices,” said Commission member, Professor Harald Winkler of the University of Cape Town, South Africa. “Carbon pricing makes sense in all countries but low-income countries, which may be more challenged to protect the people vulnerable to the initial economic impacts, may decide to start pricing carbon at a lower level and gradually increase over time.”
Commission member, Ottmar Edenhofer, who is Deputy Director and Chief Economist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany, submitted: “It is a dirty lie that CO2 emissions from fossil fuels have so far come with no cost – they cost us human health, damage to our climate, and billions of Dollars in subsidies worldwide. Putting a clear price-tag on CO2 emissions means finally telling the truth. Pricing CO2 is key to climate stabilisation. It unleashes market forces that will punish coal use and incentivise clean innovation. And instead of being another burden for the poor it can even drive social justice if income from CO2 pricing is given back to the people, as they do in Canada.”
“Around the world, pricing systems are being built up – from China to California in the US, and Europe can fix its emissions trading by introducing a minimum price. We can make this work if we really want to.”
In its five months of deliberations, the Commissioners explored multiple lines of evidence to reach its conclusion on the level of carbon pricing that would be consistent with achieving the 2C-or-below temperature objective of the Paris Agreement. They analysed national mitigation and development pathways, technological roadmaps, and global integrated assessment models.
The Commission found that explicit carbon-pricing instruments, like a carbon tax or cap-and-trade scheme, can raise revenue for countries efficiently and these revenues can be used to foster green growth in an equitable way, depending on their circumstances. Options include returning the revenue as household rebates, reducing taxes on labor or investment, supporting poorer groups in society through cash-transfer programmes, supporting new green technologies, helping companies transition to lower-carbon technologies or investing in basic services like energy, water and sanitation.
The report also points to action on carbon pricing by the private sector with hundreds of corporations already setting internal carbon prices to help inform their decision-making. Together with the Carbon Pricing Corridor Initiative led by We Mean Business and the Carbon Disclosure Project which focuses on carbon pricing in the power sector, the Commission’s report will help contribute to the design of climate policies and carbon pricing instruments around the world.
There is a general perception, and rightly so, that tobacco companies are economical when it comes to disclosing facts about the nature of their business. To burnish their unsavory image, the tobacco industry will often employ seemingly credible third parties that are referred to as “front groups” who claim to represent one agenda but actually serve that of the industry. A recent World Health Organisation (WHO) report, “Tobacco Industry Interference with Tobacco Control”, notes that the industry has a very long history of using these ’front groups’ to advance its cause.
According to scientists, tobacco smoking is dangerous to health
Australian documents leaked in 2010 showed that the trio of British American Tobacco (BAT), Philip Morris and Imperial Tobacco paid substantial funds to set up and run an Alliance of Australian Retailers (AAR) with the industry heavily involved in the day-to-day management of the group through The Civic Group, a Public Relations firm charged with creating and running the AAR.
While such developments may not easily strike a chord in the mind of the average Nigerian, a better understanding of the arguments and counter-arguments that lurched for the hearts of our lawmakers’ on the nation’s thorny road to passage of the National Tobacco Control (NTC) Act would seem to be very instructive.
At the time there were a host of groups also claiming to be independent of the industry but expressing sympathy to the industry’s demands for a legislation that would not bite. Some claimed to be smokers’ rights groups while others claimed to be tobacco retailers. Yet, others claimed they were farmer groups averse to strong tobacco legislation. At the Public Hearings organised by the Senate and House of Representatives to sample public view of the NTC Bill now Act, many of such groups came to the hearings in branded t-shirts, aso-ebi, etc.
In all this, one thing was however certain: While public health advocates stood up for the ideal, arguments supporting watered down tobacco legislation were rehearse of the exactly lines found in tobacco industry internal documents.
One individual who has etched his name in the hall of fame of industry mouthpieces is Thompson Ayodele, a director at the Initiative for Public Policy Analysis (IPPA). The IPPA prides itself as a policy think-tank whose major concern is with the principles and institutions that enhance economic development and wealth creation, with particular focus on Nigeria and Africa alike.
IPPA’s penchant for rising to the defence of the tobacco industry even when it is not necessary is legendary to the point that it can now be described as worrisome. This stance may actually be at variance with the stated mission of the IPPA which is supposedly to serve as promoter of social, economic and political freedom.
IPPA it was, that advocated that Nigeria should welcome big tobacco companies currently outdoing themselves to etch their foothold on our soil, to supposedly check illicit tobacco trade which ironically, the same big tobacco corporations have been linked to in recent reports.
IPPA it was, that forecast without sound logical reason that Nigeria would lose revenue by introducing tobacco legislation to regulate the activities of tobacco companies currently operating with all manner of deceptive marketing gimmicks to capture the lungs of our people.
Failing to stop the passage of the NTC Act and inauguration of a National Tobacco Control Committee (NATOCC) which would advise the current Ministry of Health on tobacco regulations, it was the IPPA again, that attempted to discredit the membership of that advisory body with a spurious claim that its membership was funded by external parties. Till date it is yet to provide proof of this claim.
In as much as the IPPA asserts it is a policy research advocacy group with the sole purpose of promoting Nigeria’s interest (contents of its website confirm this), in the last decade, the IPPA has systematically rebranded to become a tobacco industry PR firm.
Anyone in doubt about the organisations links to the tobacco industry may need to do a quick scan of its four Advisory Board Members in the US and United Kingdom, especially with respect to their current and past involvement in organizations and movements which advocate for a ‘free’ society and economy with minimal government regulation. There is Brian Lee Crowley, Managing Director of Macdonald-Laurier Institute which held an anti-contraband tobacco working group meeting with Dawson Strategic -a PMI lobbying firm in 2014.
There is also Gordon Johnson – a previous Adjunct scholar of Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty which has historically received funding from PMI and the Koch brothers. Another is Prof. George Ayittey, who was Adjunct Scholar (1999) of the Cato Institute. He has worked closely with PMI and RJ Reynolds, raised objections to cigarette taxes, and claims that “secondhand smoke risks are debatable.”
Linda Whetstone, a board member of Atlas Network, is also another. Atlas headquarters receives donations from the industry and channels funding from tobacco corporations to think tank actors to produce publications supportive of industry positions. With such track record, it is no wonder that the IPPA always advances industry positions.
In as much as there are no direct connections between these individuals and the tobacco industry, virtually all of them have ties to the Koch brothers, powerful right-wing billionaires with ties to tobacco companies.
For the Nigerian government, the need to be wary about tobacco industry front groups is now more than urgent and coming at a time that the tobacco industry is obstructing the passage of tobacco control policies across Africa.
In Kenya where it took a 13-year legislative battle for the passage of her Tobacco Control Act which happened in 2007, BAT petitioned a Kenyan court to stop the adoption of regulations that would facilitate implementation of Kenya’s Tobacco Control Act. The tobacco giant claimed the Kenyan Ministry of Health violated due process procedures under the Constitution by not consulting with the tobacco industry in fashioning its Tobacco Control Act.
After several deliberate attempts to arm-twist the ministry, the Kenyan court ruled that there were various meetings during the framing of the regulations that BAT was represented in, and consulted. The suit was thrown out.
Uganda also suffered the same fate. Last week a panel of five Justices of the Constitutional Court led by the Deputy Chief Justice Steven Kavuma, dismissed BAT’s application to temporarily halt the implementation of the Tobacco Control Act 2015 on the basis that it was unconstitutional.
Last year, BAT dragged the government to court, challenging 22 clauses in the Act, which is a fulfilment of Uganda’s obligations to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) which the country signed on March, 5, 2004 and ratified on June, 20, 2007.
The lesson here is that the Nigerian government must remain undeterred even in the face of this observed pattern of tobacco industry booby traps and the lies peddled by its front groups masquerading as lovers of our people. The government must also have Article 5.3 of the WHO-FCTC at the back of its mind as tobacco industry interference poses the single greatest threat to tobacco control policies. It must guard against industry influence. Only such caution will save Nigerians from lifelong addiction to tobacco. The other alternative is to allow the industry have its way to our jeopardy.
By Mohammed Kabir (Kano-based public affairs analyst)
The Eagle Online, a web-based newspaper published by Premium Eagle Media Limited, took a break to enable it change its host and put in place a new theme, both of which have been fully accomplished.
Dotun Oladipo, Managing Director, The Eagle Online
Some of those who have visited the news website since it was reactivated have described it as reader friendly and fast on both handheld devices and desktops.
According to the Managing Editor of the newspaper, Dotun Oladipo, while the tasks appeared to have been accomplished, there may be few challenges yet to be noticed by the IT team working behind the scene to make The Eagle Online available to the reading public and cherished advertisers.
Oladipo, in a statement on Monday, May 29, 2017, thus said: “In case you our dear reader encounter any challenge, please do let us know so we may quickly rectify it.”
He said the newspaper can be reached via mobile and WhatsApp number 08094000057 and email: info@theeagleonline.com.ng for any complaint.
Oladipo added: “The aim of the break is to give our advertisers and readers a whole new experience to make it worth their money and time.
“Our goal, ultimately, is to offer better service.”
