A coalition of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) has urged Nigeria’s delegation to the Eleventh Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP11) to prioritize public health over tobacco industry interests.
The CSOs, working in tobacco control, issued a joint statement on Sunday warning the delegates not to jeopardize Nigeria’s public health by yielding to tobacco industry influence.
The coalition includes the Nigeria Tobacco Control Alliance (NTCA), Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), Gatefield, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), and the Centre for Youth Inclusion and Development.
They cautioned against yielding to the influence of the tobacco industry and its allies.
“We call on Nigerian delegates to stand firm with the global public health community, resist any form of industry influence, and support decisions that advance a tobacco-free future,” the CSOs said.
COP11 to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) is scheduled to begin on Monday in Geneva, Switzerland.
The WHO FCTC represents the world’s coordinated response to the tobacco epidemic, while the Conference of the Parties serves as its governing body. The Convention currently has 183 Parties, covering more than 90 per cent of the global population.
The coalition and other public health advocates raised concern over what they described as the tobacco industry’s renewed global campaign to infiltrate COP11 discussions through proxies, with the aim of pushing delegates to legitimize nicotine-based and other novel products, including e-cigarettes, under the guise of harm reduction.
They also urged the Nigerian government and its delegates to reject all funding, partnerships, or influence linked to the tobacco industry.
The advocates said they were monitoring developments closely as global negotiations begin, stressing that Nigerians would hold the delegates fully accountable for any action that undermines the fight against tobacco and nicotine addiction.
They reminded the delegation to uphold Sections 25–28, 33–34, and 38(2) of the National Tobacco Control Act, which prohibit government officials and agencies from maintaining financial or non-financial relationships with the tobacco industry or its proxies.
They also noted that Nigeria, as a Party to the WHO FCTC, must comply with its obligations, particularly Article 5.3, which explicitly requires Parties to protect public health policies from the “commercial and vested interests of the tobacco industry.”
“We are aware that the tobacco industry and its front groups are working overtime to manipulate discussions at COP11 through delegates, pushing narratives that normalize nicotine addiction and weaken existing tobacco-control measures. Nigeria must not be complicit in this devious strategy,” the CSOs said.
The group called on the Nigerian government to demonstrate leadership in protecting its citizens, especially young people, from addiction and exploitation by multinational tobacco corporations seeking to expand their markets across Africa.
“Tobacco kills over seven million people every year,” the coalition warned. “Now the industry wants to hook a new generation on nicotine using shiny gadgets, false marketing, and the manipulation of regulatory officials.”
They described novel nicotine-based products as the “new faces of the same deadly business.”
“These nicotine-based products, touted by the industry as less harmful alternatives to smoking, are not solutions. They are traps through which the industry hopes to continue raking in profits at the expense of public health,” they said.
“The same companies that created a century of death and addiction now want to rebrand themselves as part of the solution. It is deception at its peak, and Nigeria must not fall for it.”
The coalition insisted that Nigeria’s delegates must “go to Geneva to defend life, not profit,” adding that Nigerians “will hold them accountable for any actions or positions that undermine public health or promote the interests of the tobacco industry.”
They stressed that industry interference remains the biggest obstacle to effective tobacco control and warned that introducing novel nicotine products would reverse public health gains achieved under the National Tobacco Control Act and related policies.
