REVEALED!! Government Plans To Ban Smoking In Nigeria

The Federal Government has said it was determined to ban smoking in Nigeria. Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, said this in Abuja yesterday at the Ministerial Platform where he briefed the media on his two-yearleadership of the ministry.

He said smokers would look for where they will continue to smoke should the Anti-Tobacco Bill at the National Assembly is passed into law.

The minister, who has, in recent weeks, been emphasising on the need to ban public smoking in the country, said the Federal Government could no longer condone smoking as he asked rhetorically: “Why are you smoking? Why are you taking what will kill you? What benefit do you derive from smoking? You may continue to smoke, but not in this country.”

He listed his achievements in the ministry to include the establishment of the National Trauma Centres in the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital and the National Hospital, Abuja; the completion of the Federal Staff Hospital, Jabi, Abuja; completion of laboratory and administrative building of the Nigerian Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Development, NIPRD, Abuja, and the rehabilitation and equipping of several teaching hospitals in the country.

Chukwu noted that President Jonathan doubled the funding of polio eradication activities to N4.7billion and in 2013 made a further commitment of N2.5billion with a Presidential Task Force on Polio Eradication constituted to help in the fight against the disease.

“Today, in Nigeria, seven of our teaching hospitals can do kidney transplant. This month, we are expecting the International Certification Team on the Elimination of Guinea Worm in Nigeria,” the minister said. He also informed that there would be a presidential summit on health coverage in the country, soon.

In his contribution, Minister of State for Health, Dr Ali Pate, said the ‘Save-One- Million-Lives’ project recently launched by the President would help save more than the target figure as according to him, the logistics, professionals and infrastructure on ground in the country would help achieve the result. “Maternal mortality dropped by 50 percent between 2009 and 2012,” he said.

Pate added that 25 cases of polio were recorded since January this year, which he said was as a result of the security challenges in Yobe and Borno States, where the cases were reported.