Ekiti, CAPPA intensify campaign against tobacco, nicotine addiction

THEME PICTURE - Illustration on the topic of smoking / cigarettes / tobacco / tobacco industry / nicotine / addiction / health - photographed in Vienna, Austria, on Monday, 27 October 2025. A man lights a cigarette - 20251027_PD10940 (Photo by HANS KLAUS TECHT / APA-PictureDesk via AFP)

The Ekiti State Government has partnered with the Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa to strengthen tobacco control advocacy and tackle the growing use of tobacco and nicotine products among residents, particularly young people. Speaking at a stakeholders’ engagement held in Ado Ekiti on Thursday, to commemorate the 2026 World No Tobacco Day, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health and Human Services, Sola Gbenga-Igotun, expressed concern over the increasing exposure of children and youths to tobacco and emerging nicotine products. The event, themed “Unmasking the Appeal: Countering Nicotine and Tobacco Addiction,” was organised by the ministry in collaboration with CAPPA. Gbenga-Igotun described tobacco and nicotine use as a serious threat to public health and called on stakeholders to intensify efforts to curb the trend. “It is destroying our future. We must all become advocates and speak out against it. This is happening around us and affecting our young people. We must take action,” she said. She urged parents and guardians to be more vigilant, warning that many nicotine products are odourless and difficult to detect. “Some children as young as seven, eight and nine years old are already victims. Some are smoking these products, and because many of them are odourless, parents may not even know,” she added. The Director of Public Health in the ministry, Dr Abayomi Ibrahim, disclosed that the state government plans to review its tobacco control framework to address emerging tobacco and nicotine products such as shisha and e-cigarettes. He highlighted milestones achieved by the state, including the enactment of the 2012 Smoke-Free Law, which prohibits smoking in public places, and the Ado Ekiti Declaration of 2025, which designated the state capital as a smoke-free city. Despite the progress, Ibrahim identified weak enforcement, inadequate funding, increasing youth attraction to nicotine products, tobacco industry interference and limited data as major challenges confronting tobacco control efforts. He advocated stronger enforcement through the training of health officials and law enforcement officers, dedicated funding for tobacco control programmes and expanded youth-focused interventions, including school-based awareness campaigns and peer ed