USAfricaonline.com is listed among the world's hot sites by the international newspaper, USAToday.

Tobacco and Nigeria's N17Billion poison house in Ibadan

Recently, in the historic city of Ibadan (in Oyo State, southwest Nigeria), the state Governor, Alhaji Lam Adesina, decided that the best "gift" and governorship "achievement" he could possibly offer those who elected him into office are baskets of cigarette. Cigarettes have long been proven to be unhealthy and addictive , and it should be clear to him that he is giving his own people a dangerous, unwholesome package.   He is doing this in connivance with the ' righteous‚' retired Gen. Oluegun Obasanjo-led Federal government of Nigeria who having failed to attract any serious investments now welcome tobacco billionaires as signs of foreign "investors." A few months ago, Obasanjo's government granted permission to British American Tobacco (BAT), ' a leading cigarette manufacturing company‚' to invest a ' whopping $150 million (about 17 billion naira), in the construction of a tobacco factory on a 26-hectares green field site in Ibadan, close to the Eagle Floor Mill in (Ibadan) the Oyo State Capital.' I have no doubt that the verdict of most Nigerians is that Governor Lam Adesina should ask his tobacco friends to leave Nigeria immediately or be forced out by a mass action!  They are ruiners and killers.  We can do without their so-called employment opportunities for 1000 Nigerians, many of whom would sooner become sick and sickly, and even die because of their constant inhalation of poisonous tobacco fumes.  These people are no lovers of Nigeria and Nigerians.  They are here to cart away bags of money at the expense of our lives. They are unwelcome.  They are enemies.

By Ugochukwu D. Ejinkeonye

Special to USAfrica The Newspaper, Houston
USAfricaonline.com, The Black Business Journal
NigeriaCentral.com  

Without a doubt, among the numerous advertisements of products and services which jostle for spaces on our television screens, radio broadcasts, newspaper pages, billboards, and all other forms of mass information outlet, those of cigarettes seem, in my view, to have attained the scary distinction of being among the most alluring.  The pleasant pictures of vivacious achievers smiling home with glittering laurels just because they are hooked to a particular brand of cigarette which are beamed into our homes by the various television channels every other minute are very hard to resist.  The evidence of their pernicious impact could readily be seen in the alarming haste and awful rapidity at which many youths adopt with unparalleled glee these cigarette adverts stars as their most cherished heroes and models.

I was a victim too.  As a youth, the elegant, gallant, athletic rodeo man whose image marketed the 555 brand of cigarette was my best idea of a handsome, hard-working winner.  My friends and I admired him, carried his photographs about, and yearned to smoke 555 in order to grow up and become energetic and vivacious like him.  

One wonders how many youths that have been terminally impaired because they went beyond mere fantasies or obsession with their cigarette heroes and became chain-smokers and irredeemable addicts.  Managers of tobacco adverts are so adept in this grand art of monumental deception that their victims never suspect any harm until they have willingly placed their heads on the slaughter slab.
 
Plying the way of truth then will demand that we are all told the ultimate, gory destination of all smokers.  A very beautiful cigarette advert which at best could be regarded as a perfect equivalent of a very neat and attractively-turned out beckoning HIV-positive lady labours so hard to ensure that the intending victim never gets to suspect that he or she is being lured on to sit on a keg of gun powder or embrace a live cobra until he or she crosses the borderline.  

Indeed, only very few are able to look beyond the meretricious pictures and the pernicious pomp of cigarette promotional stunt and see the blood-curdling pictures of piecemeally ruined lungs and other sensitive organs, murky, chimney-like breath tracts and heart region, the looming merciless and spine-chilling fangs of an all devouring cancer, tuberculosis, sundry lung and heart diseases, and their associate unyielding killers.

Thank God for His mercies.  Nigeria's Ministry of Health has demonstrated reasonable sensitivity to the tobacco onslaught.  Accompanying each of the usually flamboyant cigarette adverts is a sobering warning: The Federal Ministry Of Health Warns That Cigarette Smokers Are Liable To Die Young.  Simply put, this statement implies a clear truth: if one offers you a cigarette, such a one is only informing you of his wish that your life be cut short.  He is just telling you: May You Die Young! 

The proposed factory in Ibadan, by its sheer size, composition and capacity should be ' the biggest and most modern‚' of its kind in Africa.  Since this deal pulled through, the tobacco merchants have been in a merry mood.  On his own part, Lam Adesina would certainly be thumping his chest right now that he has been able to catch a prominent investor without much sweat.  I won‚' t be surprised if he goes on air in the next few days to tell his people of the new ' democracy dividend‚' he has just delivered.

 
To underscore their merry mood, an enthusiastic, swaggering Mike Cowking, the project manager of the Tobacco outfit, recently, took reporters round the site of the factory in order to show them the land where they will mount the plant that will sooner begin to produce and mass-distribute neatly wrapped poison whose singular objective would be to despatch thousands of Nigerians to their early graves.  The new tobacco plant, he said gaily, is "expected to be ready to accept the installation of the first tobacco processing machinery in October 2002."

Now the question to ask is this: is this the democracy dividend that Lam Adesina at his age, and given his vociferous people-loving claims, would wish to unleash on hapless Nigerians at this time.  Millions of naira is spent by both Mr. Olusegun Obasanjo, the president, and the state governors, including Lam Adesina, to jog around the globe ' pursuing‚' investors purportedly for the betterment of Nigerians.  Is a tobacco company, which possesses the ominous potential of initiating a gradual decimation of the Nigerian population, and robbing smiles off the faces of the citizenry what this country needs now?  Who are the people behind this funny name of British American Tobacco (BAT), and why did they think that Nigeria is the most appropriate place to site their lethal project?


The company promises to provide employment for about 1, 000 Nigerians; and so what?  How many will they kill in the process?  How many of the same Nigerians will they with their poisonous smoke confine to hospital beds?  How many orphans, widows, and widowers will they produce in a very short time?  Because, as far as I am concerned, based on the assertion of the Federal Ministry of Health, every cigarette company has a sole objective: to produce a commodity that makes people die young? 

Ibadan is not new to tobacco projects and scandals.  There was a company called Nigeria Tobacco Company (NTC) in Ibadan.  It became so prominent that it got some emblems to its name: today we still have NTC Road (about the most popular street in Ibadan), NTC Play Ground, etc.  But like all things evil and insidious, the choking power of the ill wish of men of decent will killed the company and its evil business.  In shame, they crept away from Ibadan.  I do not know whether the company‚' s vestiges in Kaduna could still be found or has that also   met with a much-deserved death?  Its premises in Ibadan were auctioned off and the Oyo State government bought everything off.  Its Play-Ground has equally been bought off by Churches and instead of the place again being a ground for the manufacture of the agents of death, the gospel of life now issues forth from there.

Now with this grand entry of British American Tobacco, is Gov. Lam Adesina giving a hint that he may soon revitalize the NTC plant and re-commence production of cigarettes?  Oyo State people have a right to stand up to their Governor and demand to know why he has admitted these unrepentant merchants of death into Ibadan.  The potential victim of their unhealthy menu might be   your son, your daughter, your father, your uncle or your nephew or niece.  Once the poison of this tobacco house is allowed to be unleashed, there could be no limits as to its cancerous impact.  Imagine your loved one pinning away on his or her sick bed just because, with his or her money, he or she had patronized a tobacco outfit. 

The other time, there were reports in some foreign media about how tobacco companies, being confronted with a growing hostile environment at home because of the high costs in human life they have continued to incur for their countries have chosen to seek a fresh haven in Africa.  Nigeria was specifically singled out as a prized target.  They would invade here with tantalizing promotional blitz and entrap everyone that strays onto their blood-stained path.  Of course the validity of the report was sufficiently vindicated when cigarette companies began to exhibit the dubious generosity of sponsoring sporting events, like the English Premier League, on television.  

Then Benson and Hedges began their Golden Tones, targeted at ' discovering young musicians‚' from Nigeria.  As if there are no young musicians to be discovered in Britain and America?  When a ban was clamped on tobacco companies engaging in such ruinous ventures, uninformed commentators began to complain that the only people that were kind enough to dissipate their energies and resources ' discovering‚' and ' promoting‚' our budding artists were being prevented from doing so, thereby stagnating the growth of the industry.  Well, any industry whose growth depends on the conversion of most Nigerians to cigarette-addicts should better die quickly, and never resurrect.  We are better off without it.  These naive cheer-leaders of the insidious trade conveniently forget that at such shows, cigarettes are freely distributed and many unwary youths and even adults are lured on and initiated into the cult of smokers.  Many have died from the aftermath of such encounters.  Should we swallow a bait and have a lethal hook thrust in our throats just because the bait looked so appealingly delicious?
 
I urge Nigerians to institute a series of lawsuits against Governor Adesina and the tobacco men.  The company they are setting up constitutes a flagrant breach of our right to an unendangered life and existence.  We should take a cue from what is happening in Western countries where families whose loved ones were killed by tobacco-caused illnesses have taken the devilish companies to court.  Many of them have been made to pay millions of dollars as out of court compensations to the petitioners.  And the courts are also awarding sentences against these companies. It is also true that many of the directors of these companies have had to admit in the open, or while in court or at other fora of public inquiry that they are sufficiently aware that their products are very harmful and could shorten people‚' s lives. Note that it is a fact that many tobacco company workers abhor their products: yes, they do not smoke.
 
The view that people are merely exercising their free will when they choose to smoke does not hold water. Many people do not know what is good for them and so, sometimes, manifest the predilection to give free rein to the Id which suppresses the higher moderating influences of the Ego in them, according to the psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud.  That is why the organized society as the Super Ego comes in to beat such derailing people back into line and save them from themselves.  If this were not so, then, suicide should have been allowed as a perfect expression of one's free will.  If someone kept his bayonet in your custody and then comes to take it back after he has been medically confirmed to be insane, would you respect his free will to use what belongs to him and surrender the bayonet to him?  What are we really saying?  What is the point of convergence or departure between the unhindered exercise of one‚' s freedom and society‚' s redeeming and/or moderating influence in the event of undiscerned danger looming over the individual?
 
It is clear that tobacco is becoming more and more unpopular by the day.  Whatever taxes and duties they pay to the government is akin to a man paying you to rape your daughter.  We can do without those monies.  Let them just go. Ditto for all other tobacco companies. They are unwanted, loathsome and unwelcome. What they manufacture has no single benefit, no redeeming feature.  All it does is to kill and ruin.

Gov. Adesina should know that if he continues to insist on their stay in Ibadan to carry out their evil trade, he is only telling us that the interest of the people is no longer his priority.  And the people should give him only one reply: vote him out in 2003 election.  I even think that 2003 is still too far.  All non-smokers in Oyo State House of Assembly should team up and initiate an impeachment bill immediately and vote him out.  He can then go and become the Executive Governor of British America Tobacco, wherever they will relocate when the new Governor chases them out.  
Ejinkeonye is a Lagos-based writer, and he will wrote on social and public issues for USAfricaonline.com. We welcome responses to this commentary to Letters@USAfricaonline.com. For more information on the dangers and destruction caused by tobacco log on to TOBACCOFREE

Africa suffers the scourge of the virus. This life and pain of Kgomotso Mahlangu, a five-month-old AIDS patient (above) in a hospital in the Kalafong township near Pretoria, South Africa, on October 26, 1999, brings a certain, frightening reality to the sweeping and devastating destruction of human beings who form the core of any definition of a country's future, its national security, actual and potential economic development and internal markets. By Chido Nwangwu

22 million Africans HIV-infected, ill with AIDS
while African leaders ignore disaster-in-waiting
Why Colin Powell brings gravitas, credibility and star power to Bush presidency.
AFRICA AND THE U.S. ELECTIONS
Beyond U.S. electoral shenanigans, rewards and dynamics of a democratic republic hold lessons for African politics.
CONTINENTAL AGENDA
Bush's position on Africa is "ill-advised." The position stated by Republican presidential aspirant and Governor of Texas, George Bush where he said that "Africa will not be an area of priority" in his presidency has been questioned by USAfricaonline.com Publisher Chido Nwangwu. He added that Bush's "pre-election position was neither validated by the economic exchanges nor geo-strategic interests of our two continents."

These views were stated during an interview CNN's anchor Bernard Shaw and senior analyst Jeff Greenfield had with Mr. Nwangwu on Saturday November 18, 2000 during a special edition of 'Inside Politics 2000.'
Nwangwu, adviser to the Mayor of Houston (the 4th largest city in the U.S., and immigrant home to thousands of Africans) argued further that "the issues of the heritage interests of 35 million African-Americans in Africa, the volume and value of oil business between between the U.S and Nigeria and the horrendous AIDS crisis in Africa do not lend any basis for Governor Bush's ill-advised position which removes Africa from fair consideration" were he to be elected president.
By Al Johnson

Osama bin-Laden's goons threaten Nigeria and Africa's stability
What has Africa to do with September 11 terror?
Africans reported dead in terrorist attack at WTC
September 11 terror and the ghost of things to come....
Will religious conflicts be the time-bomb for Nigeria's latest transition to civilian rule?
Conflicting emotions, feeling of disappointment, timing of revelation that Rev. Jackson fathered a child with former aide lead to charges of "right-wing orchestration."
THE FIRST BLACK POPE? To our Brother Cardinal Arinze: May your pastoral lineage endure!
Nigeria's Presidential Election: Is it just for the Highest Bidder?
Wong is wrong on Blacks in Houston city jobs
Why is 4-year old Onyedika carrying a placard against killings in Nigeria?
How Nigeria's Islamic Sharia crises will affect the U.S.
NEWS INVESTIGATION
Married White woman confesses to having sexual relations with arrested Nigerian-born, U.S.based Catholic priest Ike Udegbulem.....

The unfolding criminal, legal and religio-social dimensions following the allegations of rape and sodomy made by a lady parishioner at Our Lady of Charity Roman Catholic Church in Bedford-Stuyvesant (New York) against former Catholic priest of Nigerian-descent, Ike Cyriacus Udegbulem, are taking more complicated, messy turns and twists. USAfricaonline.com and Houston-based USAfrica The Newspaper can confirm that a mother of two who is the wife of a man whose family has been providing most of the financial and operational needs of Udegbulem has confessed to being not only a provider of material needs but the sexual lover of the randy priest who hails from Ihioma, in Orlu Imo State of Nigeria. They all live in the city of Laredo, Texas. Special reports and news investigation by Chido Nwangwu
USAfrica INTERVIEW
"Why African Catholics are concerned about crises, sex abuse issues in our church" - a frank chat with ICCO's Mike Umeorah
Why Bush should focus on dangers facing Nigeria's return to democracy and Obasanjo's slipperyslide
DEMOCRACY'S WARRIOR
Out of Africa. …The cock that crows in the morning belongs to one household but his voice is the property of the neighborhood. -- Chinua Achebe, Anthills of the Savannah. An editor carries on his crusade against public corruption and press censorship in his native Nigeria and other African countries. By John Suval.
Should Africa debates begin and end at The New York Times and The Washington Post? No
Johnnie Cochran will soon learn that defending Abacha's loot is not as simple as his O.J Simpson's case. By Chido Nwangwu The Economics of Elections in Nigeria
HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY
How far, how deep will Nigeria's human rights commission go?
Rtd. Gen. Babangida trip as emissary for Nigeria's Obasanjo to Sudan raises curiosity, questions about what next in power play?
COUNTERPOINT
'Why is Bill Maher spreading racist nonsense about HIV/AIDS and Africa on ABC?
USAfricaonline LITERATURE
As Chinua Achebe turned 70, Africa's preeeminent statesman Nelson Mandela, Toni Morrison, Wole Soyinka, Ali Mazrui, Leon Botstein (president of Bard College), Ojo Maduekwe, Emmanuel Obiechina, Ngugi wa Thinong'o, Micere Mugo, Michael Thelwell, Niyi Osundare, and an army of some of the world's leading writers and arts scholars joined to pay tribute to him at Bard College in New York. (Achebe is in pix with Morrison). Meanwhile, the Nobel committee has, again, chosen a relatively less known (globally-speaking) Chinese novelist, Gao Xingjian, rather than Achebe for the Literature prize. Achebe was seen as a top favorite for the 2000 award. What the Swedish Nobel committee will not give, Achebe has, for well over 30 years, won in the hearts of millions in 53 languages. By Chido Nwangwu
Literary giant Chinua Achebe returns "home" from U.S., to love and adulation of community
Hate groups' spin by Lamar Alexander benefits anti-Blacks, anti-Semites, and racists
Annan, power and burden of the U.N
The Civilianizing of African soldiers into Presidents
At 39, Nigerians still face dishonest stereotypes such as Buckley's, and other self-inflicted wounds.
JFK Jr.: Death of a Good Son
'Why is Bill Maher spreading racist nonsense about HIV/AIDS and Africa on ABC?
National Summit on Africa, Congresswoman Jackson-Lee hold policy forum in Houston
'100 Black Men are solutions-oriented' says Thomas Dortch, Jr., Richard Johnson and Nick Clayton II as they share perspectives with USAfrica's founder on the national organization.
ARTS
The Life and Irreverent times of Afrobeat superstar, FELA
TRIBUTE Tanzania's founding president Julius Nyerere

 

 

 


Nnamdi Azikiwe: Statesman, Intellectual and Titan of African politics

SOCCER
FIFA chief promises Africa will host 2010 World Cup, if...
Sepp Blatter, president of the world's soccer governing body, FIFA, has promised to lobby and make possible that the continent hosts the championship for the first time if he is re-elected as FIFA president. Blatter's backers say he has the support of almost 105 of the 204 member associations in FIFA. USAfricaonline.com affirms that the African continent has a huge soccer following and enthusiasts and stars who play for the leading teams all over the world. Also, some of the very exciting teams such as Cameroons, Ghana and Nigeria have made international soccer a more popular sport. By Chido Nwangwu

Nigeria as a Nation of Vulcanizers
Community Service Awards bring African-American, American policy and business leaders together with African community at Texas Southern University
110 minutes with Hakeem Olajuwon
Cheryl Mills' first class defense of Clinton and her detractors' game 

INSIGHT: How Obasanjo's self-succession charade at his Ota Farm has turned Nigeria to an 'Animal Farm.' By Prof. Mobolaji Aluko
Obasanjo's 'prayers' and the Abacha path of staying in power. By Nkem Ekeopara
Is Obasanjo ordained by God to rule Nigeria? And, other fallacies. By Prof. Sola Adeyeye
Private initiative, free market forces, and more democratization are keys to prosperity in Africa.
The Civilianizing of African soldiers into Presidents
Why Dr. Martin Luther King's vision is valid into the 21st century
DIPLOMACY Walter Carrington: An African-American diplomat puts principles above self for Nigeria  USAfricaonline.com Founder Chido Nwangwu with the U.S. former Ambassador Carrington (right) at the U.S. embassy in Lagos during a courtesy visit.
TRANSITION
JELANI WILLIAMS
USAfricaonline.com and USAfrica The Newspaper mourn the death on July 8, 2002 in Michigan of our friend and brother, Houston-based Pan Africanist, scholar Lorenza "Jelani" Williams who worked tirelessly to foster pan-Africanism in Texas, and beyond. His work with the Taseti African Studies group in Houston will always be remembered. My his tireless soul rest in peace! And, may God protect and guide his family!! Goodbye dear friend and brother!!! Chido Nwangwu, Founder, USAfrica Media Networks.
RELIGION AND ETHNIC CONFLICT
Sharia-related killings and carnage in Kaduna reenact deadly prologue to Nigeria-Biafra war of 1967.
Martin Luther King's legacy, Jews and Black History Month. By Chido Nwangwu


Steve Jobs and Apple represent the future of digital living. By Chido Nwangwu
Apple announces Titanium, "killer apps" and other ground-breaking products. iTunes makes a record 500,000 downloads.

INSIGHT
A KING FOR ALL TIMES: Why Martin Luther King's legacy and vision are relevant into 21st 21st century.

The coup in Cote d'Ivoire and its implications for democracy in Africa. By Chido Nwangwu
(Related commentary) Coup in Cote d'Ivoire has been in the waiting. By Tom Kamara
Nigerian stabbed to death in his bathroom in Houston.
DEMOCRACY'S WARRIOR
Out of Africa. …The cock that crows in the morning belongs to one household but his voice is the property of the neighborhood. -- Chinua Achebe, Anthills of the Savannah. An editor carries on his crusade against public corruption and press censorship in his native Nigeria and other African countries. By John Suval.
Biafra-Nigeria war and history get fresh, critical look from a survivor. By Alverna Johnson and Vivian Okeke.
  'Biafra: History Without Mercy' - a preliminary note. By Chido Nwangwu
ODUMEGWU EMEKA OJUKWU:"It was simply a choice between Biafra and enslavement! And, here's why we chose Biafra"
Biafra: From Boys to Men. By Dr. M.O. Ene
Johnnie Cochran will soon learn that defending Abacha's loot is not as simple as his O.J Simpson's case. By Chido Nwangwu
Should Africa debates begin and end at The New York Times and The Washington Post? No
Nelson Mandela, Tribute to the world's political superstar and Lion of Africa  
Why Dr. Martin Luther King's vision is valid into the 21st century
Nelson Mandela, Tribute to the world's political superstar and Lion of Africa  
USAfrica FORUM: IN THE HOUSE OF MANDELA: A SILLY CRY FOR REPARATIONS
By Prof. Chimalum Nwankwo
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's burden mounts with murder charges, trials
Why Chinua Achebe, the Eagle on the Iroko, is Africa's writer of the century. By Chido Nwangwu
HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY
How far, how deep will Nigeria's human rights commission go?
Rtd. Gen. Babangida trip as emissary for Nigeria's Obasanjo to Sudan raises curiosity, questions about what next in power play?
110 minutes with Hakeem Olajuwon
Cheryl Mills' first class defense of Clinton and her detractors game 
It's wrong to stereotype Nigerians as Drug Dealers
Seriously, is your web site a Turkey, too? Get Solutions
Nigeria: a nation of Vulcanizers
PetroGasWorks
Shell picks Leslie Mays as VP Global Diversity
EndGame in Kinshasa: U.S must boot Mobutu for own interest, future of Zaire and Africa
Why Powell's mission to the Middle East failed. By Jonathan Elendu
Will the rash of Ethnic Violence disrupt Nigeria's effort at Democracy?
Arafat's duplicity, terrorism at the heart of Israeli-Palestinian crises. By Barry Rubin
Nigerian stabbed to death in his bathroom in Houston.
Nigeria at 40: punish financial thuggery, build domestic infrastructure
Is Obasanjo really up to Nigeria's challenge and crises? By USAfricaonline.com contributing editor Ken Okorie. Commentary appears from NigeriaCentral.com
BULLET Versus BALLOT
The bloody stain of military coup, on Friday December 24, 1999, sullied the once unique history of democratic rule in the beautiful and historically democratic, French-speaking west African country of Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) by General Robert Guei (inset). USAfricaonline report and commentary.
COMMUNITY INTEREST
Why the revisionist forces of racist oppression in South Africa should not be allowed to intimidate Ron and Charlayne Gault.
SOUTH AFRICA
Nigeria, Cry My Beloved Country

Index of Founder's Notes (1)

Index of Founder's Notes (2)

Index of other Viewpoints
USAfricaonline contributors and columnists on the issues

BUSINESS
Dr. Anaebonam's strategic vision for BREEJ is a model for business excellence and empowerment.
Pope John Paul, Abacha and Nigeria's Christians
TRANSITION
General Tunde Idiagbon:  A nationalist, an iron-surgeon departs
Abiola's sudden death and the ghost of things to come  
Gen. Shehu Musa Yar'Adua's prison death, Nigeria and The Ghost of Things to come ..... 

 

Soni Egwuatu, Houston businessman, joins his ancestors