BY BABAJIDE SEIDU ADEWALE
Tobacco kills up to half of its users who don’t quit. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), it is the only legal consumer product that kills up to half of its users when used as intended by the manufacturer.
In 2023, no fewer than eight million people died from tobacco, including an estimated 1.3 million non-smokers who were exposed to second-hand smoke. In Nigeria, about 28,876 tobacco deaths are recorded annually. This, according to research by the Centre for the Study of Economies of Africa (CSEA), costs Nigerians about N526.45 billion in direct annual treatment expenses. Even more concerning is the reality that over five million young Nigerians are addicted to smoking, even in the face of negative health consequences.
Despite this sobering data, the tobacco and allied industries remain relentless in their pursuit of new victims. To maintain or increase tobacco sales and profits, they must attract new prey to replace those who die or manage to quit. To this end, the industry spent a staggering eight billion dollars on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship (TAPS) last year, according to the WHO. In this mischievous plot, impressionable children and young persons are particularly vulnerable, easily swayed by the glamourisation of tobacco imagery in the media to adopt smoking and other detrimental habits.
That is why the buzz around recent comments by investment banker Mr. Farooq Oreagba endorsing smoking deserves comment.
Just weeks after the Nigerian Government, through the National Film and Videos Censors Board (NFVCB), moved to curb the glamorisation of smoking in Nigeria’s entertainment industry, Nigerians were confronted by a paradox: it was the sensational, widely publicised image of Oreagba, a cancer survivor and awareness volunteer, puffing on a cigar.
The distinguished Ijebu son, at this year’s Ojude Oba (the King’s) Festival in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, stole the show with his “steeze,” a trending urban slang for impeccable fashion and personality. Oreagba left netizens drooling and, inadvertently, became the face of the festival following his grand entrance at the event. Pictured sitting on a beautifully decorated horse, his enhanced look – including a cigar hanging from his lips – earned him the title of “The Man of the Day.”
According to some media accounts, the Ojude Oba draws about one million participants yearly, not to mention the TV and social media audience.
“What a day!! The whole world has seen the pics,” an excited Oreagba said in a post on his Instagram handle on June 24.
The Federal Government, which only a few weeks before the viral shot from the Ojude Oba festival had received kudos for its strong push against tobacco promotion and glamourisation in the entertainment industry, also saw the images. Yet on July 8, 2024, Obi Asika, the Director-General of the National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), named Oreagba the NCAC’s Honorary Global Ambassador. It was entirely within its rights to do so.
Tobacco Control
In recent years, the Nigerian government, driven by advocacy from tobacco control advocates, has taken a fairly tough stance against smoking, especially against its portrayal in films and visual media. To protect Nigerians, the government enacted the National Tobacco Control Act (NTCA) 2015.
Specifically, Section 12 (1) of the NTCA 2015 states that “Except otherwise provided in this Act, no person shall (a) promote or advertise tobacco or tobacco products in any form; (b) sponsor or participate in any programme or event which is aimed at wholly or partially promoting or advertising tobacco or tobacco products; or (c) engage or participate in any tobacco advertising, promotion, or sponsorship as a media or event organiser, celebrity or other participant, as a recipient of any sponsorship contribution, or as an intermediary that facilitates any such contribution.”
However, Section 12 (2) of the NTCA provides contradictory exceptions, allowing communication between tobacco manufacturers, retailers, and consenting adults aged 18 years or older. This loophole, among other devious tactics, is regularly exploited by the industry to ensnare new customers. They could be doing so now.
Following the wide mileage of the Oreagba cigar images and his comments in subsequent videos, the government’s tobacco control efforts are now at risk of unravelling.
For instance, on July 1, a video was shared on X with the caption, “ST hosted Mr Farooq Oreagba at his cigar lounge.” It showed Oreagba being presented with and lighting up a cigar.
“This is gonna be a good smoke,” Oreagba said as the cigar was lit. Taking a drag, he added, “If this is what I get for riding a horse, I’d ride every * day. D! This is nice! This is a nice cigar! This is a fri**ing nice cigar!” As of July 1, the video had racked up 552.9K views, with not a few comments acknowledging his remarks.
It did not end there. On July 11, Oreagba posted a video and pictures of himself puffing a cigar with the caption, “Let me just drop these here. Nothing beats a good smoke ….” 2.3 million people had seen the video and images as of Tuesday, July 16.
At this rate, one can only imagine if a fraction of viewers, heavily influenced by Oreagba’s promotion of smoking, take up this deadly habit, our public health system – already tethering on the brink of collapse – would have an additional burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) to contend with. The victims, unlike Oreagba, may probably not be able to raise the funds to seek the advanced and expensive medical diagnosis and care that their debilitating conditions would require.
According to the WHO, studies show that both direct (advertising) and indirect (promotion and sponsorship) approaches increase the likelihood of people beginning or continuing tobacco use. Such tactics also mislead the public by depicting tobacco as no different from any other legal consumer product, thereby increasing its social acceptability. Thus, the promotion of images such as Oreagba’s Ojude Oba’s appearance, as extensively covered by both traditional and new media, creates a falsely positive image of smoking. It also helps the tobacco industry to recruit new addicts for its products of disease and death, to the detriment of public health and tobacco control efforts.
To be clear, Oreagba does not claim responsibility for his images going viral. He credited that to the photographers, stating that it was not planned that way. This article does not suggest that he has been recruited by the tobacco industry either. In the same vein, it is important to note that smoking, as deadly as it is, is not illegal yet, and an adult is entirely within their rights to decide their lifestyle and health choices.
However, with status comes responsibility. The kind of responsibility that should have prompted the Ojude Oba icon to refrain from using his newfound celebrity status to publicly promote smoking, inadvertently furthering the interests of the tobacco industry against the health of Nigerians.
Oreagba has also defended his public display and glamourisation of smoking by saying it did not cause his cancer. The businessman is weathering an incurable form of cancer: multiple myeloma. Unlike the majority of cancers where smoking is a leading risk factor, multiple myeloma is a rare exception whose cause remains unknown, according to the Cancer Council of Australia. Nevertheless, smoking can still complicate treatments for multiple myeloma and worsen symptoms.
The Oreagba paradox deepens with the realisation that he is a cancer awareness volunteer who runs marathons to raise funds for cancer charities. He disclosed his awareness of smoking’s heightened risk for cancer while narrating his cancer survival story in a 2017 interview with The Heart of the Matter (HOTM). Oreagba said: “The two things that I have learned, and I keep on telling people, is, you can increase or decrease your chances of getting cancer by the lifestyle you lead. I’ve met someone who’s got lung cancer and never smoked. But if you do smoke, the chances you’ll get lung cancer increases.”
Like Oreagba, most people know smoking can cause cancer. What they may not be aware of is that it can also cause several other diseases and can damage nearly every organ in the body, including the lungs, heart, blood vessels, reproductive organs, mouth, skin, eyes, and bones. About 80% of lung cancers, as well as about 80% of all lung cancer deaths, are due to smoking. Smoking also increases the risk for cancers of the mouth, larynx (voice box), pharynx (throat), oesophagus, kidney, cervix, liver, bladder, pancreas, stomach, colon/rectum. It also raises the risk of acute myeloid leukaemia. Cigarettes, cigars, and pipes can all cause cancer. There is no safe form of tobacco smoke.
The tobacco industry, facing stiffer opposition in the West, is actively targeting countries in the global south, like Nigeria, with large youth populations and relatively weaker anti-tobacco regulations. Their focus is on young Nigerians, the same impressionable people taken in by Oreagba’s steeze and glamourisation of smoking. It is on this basis that I must implore Oreagba, in the interest of the country he so loves, to cease using his fame to endorse and promote smoking.
I urge him, if he loves his teeming fans – constituting mainly of young people with their futures ahead of them – not to take sides with the monster called the tobacco industry, which is intent on killing or severely harming Nigerians, so it can make more money.
Adewale, an anti-tobacco awareness volunteer, writes from Abuja
