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WHO Advocates Ban On Tobacco Use In Nigeria

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The World Health Organisation (WHO) says it is desirous of a tobacco-free Nigeria and for its products to be completely banned in the nation.

The Country Representative to Nigeria, Dr Walter Mulombo, said this on Friday in Abuja at a news conference to commemorate 2024 World No Tobacco Day with the theme “Protecting Children from Tobacco Industry Interference.”

According to Mulombo, everyone can work towards ensuring future generations are free from the dangers of tobacco and nicotine addiction.

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He said, “I dream of the day when tobacco products will be banned in Nigeria and not allowed to be sold or bought.”

He also said that the tobacco industry must be held accountable for the harm caused to health, the environment, and the economy.

He added that “tobacco is responsible for more than eight million deaths annually, with more than seven million of the deaths being results of direct tobacco use, while around 1.2 million non-smokers die from exposure to second-hand smoke.

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“A recently released report by WHO termed ‘Hooking the Next Generation’ showed that an estimated 37 million children aged 13 to 15 years use tobacco, and in many countries, the rate of e-cigarette use among adolescents exceeds that of adults.

“The report also indicated that most adults who use tobacco started when they were children or young adults, with lifetime users most likely to become hooked before the age of 21 years.

“This indicates that the industry targets youths for a lifetime of profits, creating a new wave of addiction.”

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Mulombo also said that the range of products the industry used to appeal to youths has expanded significantly, from cigarettes, cigarillos, and shisha to newer products like e-cigarettes, heated tobacco products, and nicotine pouches.

He added that flavoured products and additives, sleek designs, and child-friendly packaging and imagery made addictive products even more appealing to youths.

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Companies rapidly launch new products that sidestep, or are not included, in current laws and use every available means to expand their market share before regulations can catch up with them.

“Unfortunately, these tactics are working. Evidence from around the world shows an alarming uptake by children of some products, such as e-cigarettes.

“The tobacco industry is succeeding in its efforts to create a new generation of young people who smoke, vape, suck nicotine pouches, or use snuff.”

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On the situation in Nigeria, the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Ali Pate, said the 2012 Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) shows that 4.5 million Nigerians 15 years of age and older are currently using tobacco products, of which 3.1 million are smokers.

Pate added that “the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) conducted in 2008 across five states in Nigeria shows the prevalence of tobacco use among adolescents aged 13 to 15 years, ranging from 13.1 per cent to 23.3 per cent in Lagos State and Cross River.”

Represented by the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Daju Kachollom, the minister said that the consequences of tobacco industry interference with children’s health are profound and far-reaching, leading to a host of adverse health outcomes.

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They include respiratory ailments, cognitive impairment, and increased susceptibility to addiction later in life.

Also, he said, exposure to secondhand smoke poses significant threat to children’s well-being, exacerbating the risk of respiratory infections, asthma, and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

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Exposure to tobacco smoke also goes as far as exposing children in uterus, even before they are given birth.

“Exposure of the mother to tobacco smoke can cause poor birth outcomes and affect lung, cardiovascular, and brain development of the baby.

“This can also increase the risk of obesity, behavioural problems, and cardiovascular disease later in life,” Pate added.

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He, however, said that in combating the menace posed by tobacco, Nigeria made several giant strides, such as signing and ratifying the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) treaty in 2004 and 2005, respectively.

He added that the ministry, in collaboration with other line ministries, departments, agencies, and other stakeholders, developed the National Tobacco Control (NTC) Act 2015 and its implementing regulations in 2019.

According to him, the act contains several provisions that provide protection of children, such as the ban on sale and purchase of tobacco and tobacco products by minors.

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He added that the Tobacco Control Unit has concluded plans to establish Tobacco-Free Clubs in selected schools and sensitise owners/managers of public places in one state each from the six geopolitical zones, with the collaboration of Management Sciences for Health.

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The Chairman, Nigeria Tobacco Control Alliance, Mr Akinbode Oluwafemi, said that because children are being targeted by products known to be very harmful, “the nation must respond with very targeted laws and enforcement.

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We have the National Tobacco Control Act; we have the National Tobacco Regulation 2019. We are grateful to the Nigerian Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) on the regulation of smoking in movies.

“We want government to enforce those laws as a way of protecting our children. As of the time we were enacting the National Tobacco Control Act 2015, a lot has changed with the tobacco industry.

“They continue to mutate and come in various forms, so it may be time for us to begin to engage on how to strengthen those laws.”

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The Executive Secretary, NFVCB, Dr Shaibu Husseini, said various efforts had been put in by regulatory bodies to sanitise and educate parents, guardians, and the public about the ills of tobacco use.

Represented by Mrs Hasina Nasir, Husseini said the board realised that tobacco industries hide under the banner of entertainment to promote and advertise their products in all forms.

“Today, the film industry is facing an emergency that requires bold and ambitious actions from all of us as parents, guardians, and stakeholders.

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“Therefore, after series of engagements, the NFVCB decided to partner with CAPPA to make subsidiary legislation to control glamorisation of tobacco products in films, music videos, and skits.

“The proposed legislation has been forwarded to the Federal Ministry of Justice for gazetting,” he added.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that World No Tobacco Day is commemorated every year on May 31.

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The 2024 theme is to raise awareness across the world and to call on the industry to stop targeting young people with products that are harmful to their health.
(NAN)

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Naira Ranks Ninth Weakest Currency, Tanzania’s Strangest In Africa — Forbes Report [LIST]

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The Nigerian Naira has been ranked as the ninth weakest currency in Africa, according to a Forbes currency calculator report for September 2025, underscoring the lingering pressure on Nigeria’s economy despite recent signs of easing inflation.

The Forbes currency calculator, which sources real-time foreign exchange market data via the Open Exchange Rates API, updates every five minutes to reflect live trading values.

The system captures the impact of demand and supply, market sentiment, and broader economic conditions on each nation’s currency performance.

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According to the data, the São Tomé & Príncipe Dobra (22,282 per $1) topped the list of Africa’s weakest currencies, followed by the Sierra Leonean Leone (20,970), Guinean Franc (8,680), Ugandan Shilling (3,503), and Burundian Franc (2,968). Others on the list include the Congolese Franc (2,811), Tanzanian Shilling (2,465), Malawian Kwacha (1,737), the Nigerian Naira (₦1,490 per $1), and the Rwandan Franc (1,448).

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In contrast, the Tunisian Dinar (2.90 per $1), Libyan Dinar (5.40), Moroccan Dirham (9.91), Ghanaian Cedi (12.31), and Botswanan Pula (14.15) were ranked as the five strongest currencies in Africa.

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The continent currently has 54 recognised countries, according to the United Nations and geographic data sources.

Meanwhile, a PUNCH Online report highlights that Nigeria’s inflation rate showed significant improvement in 2025, marking a rare disinflationary trend.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported that the country’s headline inflation fell from 24.5% in January to 20.12% in August, its fifth consecutive month of decline.

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The trend is attributed to stable foreign exchange inflows from oil exports and remittances, better agricultural yields, and the Central Bank of Nigeria’s monetary policy, which held the benchmark rate at 27.5%.

The PUNCH on September 18 2025, reported that the Independent Media and Policy Initiative (IMPI) noted that inflation had slowed sharply in the year’s first eight months. IMPI chairman Dr Omoniyi Akinsiju said, “Nigeria recorded a rare disinflation in 2025, with inflation falling from 24.5% in January to 20.12% in August, the sharpest mid-year slowdown in over a decade.”

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The IMPI forecasts that inflation could drop to 17% by December 2025, signalling continued disinflation and easing pressure on consumers.

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I Apologise For Mutilating You, Let’s Reconcile, Former FGM Tells Estranged Daughter

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Mrs Bridget Omobude, 56, a former Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) practitioner who cut girls for more than three decades, admitted to mutilating even her daughter, a decision that fractured their relationship.

For Omogbode, reneging on female genital mutilation, a trade she learnt and had been involved with from age 11, was because of her daughter, who had relocated abroad.

Her daughter called to confirm whether she was genitally mutilated as a baby. Her mother’s affirmation led to her daughter stopping talking or receiving her calls.

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Although Mrs Omobude tried all she could, to date, her daughter had stopped talking to or receiving her calls.

Mrs Omobude, now an advocate for FGM, believes that maybe when her daughter reads about her apology, she might be forgiven.

Omobude said, “When I joined this programme, I was happy to be with the children. My family has always cared for children; it’s a tradition passed down from my great-grandmother to my mother and now to us. When they brought the children for the service, we held them so we could learn how to care for them properly.

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“I have surrendered my knife as a cutter, though I used to carry out the procedure on only family members. But with the experience I am having with my daughter now, I recommend other cutters stop this hazardous act.”

Mrs Sakirat Makinde (not her real name) is a survivor of FGM and a mother of five girls and a boy. Three of her female children had already been cut (circumcised).

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I am a mother of six: a boy and five girls. Among those five girls, three are circumcised. The reason why the remaining two were not circumcised is that when I gave birth to my number five girl, there was no money to circumcise her,” recounted Mrs Makinde.

She added, “So when I gave birth to the last one, I was now planning to circumcise the two of them together. So when I heard that the money they told me was big, I went back home hoping that maybe later I would go back to circumcise them, but I didn’t go back.

“Till the beginning of this year, 2025, I was still planning to go for those two because they said when they’re not circumcised, they would not stay with one husband due to promiscuity myths and beliefs.

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“This was about 12 years and nine years ago, as the children are now between 12 and nine years old. At that time, I was asked to pay N12,000 each for the two of them. It was while I was still planning how to circumcise them that a female chemist introduced the FGM programme to me, which I attended,” she said.

Another FGM survivor, Hannah (not her real name), said the painful experience has left her struggling to enjoy sexual intimacy with her partner.

The 38-year-old lady from the indigenous Igbo tribe in Enugu State said that she was cut without her consent on the orders of family members.

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Hannah described FGM as barbaric and unnecessary, urging those involved in the practice to stop, saying the trauma still lingers, making her feel less feminine.

Meanwhile, Hannah, who was a victim of this act, joined the practice at age 25 and operated on girls, too. She told how girls were subjected to the surgery with no anaesthetic and bled severely.

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She noted that the cutting comes with physical complications, severe pain, excessive bleeding, infections, urinary issues, menstrual problems, emotional trauma, and psychological effects, including anxiety, depression, and sexual dysfunction.

Another survivor of FGM and secondary school teacher, Doris Akare, in Edo State, was mutilated at 8 days old. This made her spend an extra three months at Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LUTH.

FGM is a no-no for me. Every mythical belief about the promiscuity of women is not good.

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She blames some elders for sticking to this traditional practice and harassing individuals who refuse to comply with their beliefs and values.

At a two-day media dialogue in Benin, organised by the Oyo State Ministry of Information and Orientation in collaboration with UNICEF, these survivors and campaigners shared their pains and the devastating impact of FGM.

They are transforming their personal trauma into powerful advocacy, determined to end a practice that continues to scar millions of Nigerian women and girls.

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The Chief of UNICEF, Lagos Field Office, Celine Lafoucriere, said at the media parley that nearly 20 million women and girls in Nigeria had undergone FGM, ranking third highest globally.

This is a huge number that we cannot be blind or deaf to,” she said.

Lafoucriere said that despite being outlawed in Nigeria, FGM persists in numerous Nigerian communities, adding that the practice is fuelled by myths and traditions and should be acknowledged as detrimental.

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She emphasised that no cultural or traditional practice should compromise girls’ health, rights, or prospects.

In her remarks, Blessing Ejiofor, UNICEF Communication Officer at the Lagos Field Office, noted that while campaigns have led to a decline in FGM, the advocacy efforts aim for its complete elimination.

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Ejiofor, who declared that no woman should undergo the harmful process of FGM, revealed that it was now a criminal offence in Nigeria to engage in it.

Moreover, the Child Protection Specialist, UNICEF Lagos Office, Dennis Onoise, said that the testimonies from the survivors and former practitioners are enough evidence that FGM is not only harmful but also dangerous to the lives and livelihoods of women.

We need to reach out to community members and say we want to abandon this practice. We can no longer continue with this practice; we are not helping the people we cut in terms of reproductive health. It doesn’t help the woman to enjoy her body. It does not curb promiscuity, so its purpose is defeated,” Onoise declared.
(TRIBUNE)

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Nigeria Needs 1.2 Million Teachers — FEDCOLE Ofeme Chairman

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Chairman, Governing Council, Federal College of Education, Ofeme-Ohuhu in Umuahia North LGA, Hajjia Rabia Hussain Adamu, has said that Nigeria is in dire need of over 1.2 million teachers, describing this deficit in the education sector as the biggest crisis.

Adamu disclosed this on Friday on the occasion of the maiden matriculation ceremony of the college.

She said, “The biggest crisis point in Nigeria is the teacher crisis. We have a gap of about 1.2 million teachers. We need 1.2 million teachers minimum for Nigerian classes to be adequately provided for.

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“The ratio that we have is supposed to be 1 to 25, one teacher to 25 pupils. But there are schools in this country where you have one teacher to 300, one teacher to 400, one teacher to 500. I would like to believe that the interest that you have shown in coming to a college of education is to become a teacher”.

Taking a critical look of the departmentmental spread of the 160 matriculants, Hajjia Adamu regretted, “a hundred and sixty students are matriculating today.

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Across all the subject areas, I have noticed that there is a lot of people, a lot of interest in business, education sector, followed by political science, social studies. From my mental calculation, I think there are about 44 people wanting to study business.

“About 20 in social sciences, sociology, social work, social studies rather, and then there are about 15 in political science or thereabout. This is very good, but as a teacher and as a player in the education team, in the education sector, as a team leader of some sort in any activity that relates to education in Nigeria, I think that this admission profile is saying a lot. Nigeria is at the threshold of a crisis in the education sector, and we all know that”.

Addressing the matriculants, she warned, “I know many people would not agree with me, even most of you there. So you go for a business education, I hope I will not come back after five years and find you in the markets, not in my classrooms. I hope I will not come back in three or five years and find you in customs, immigration, and so on and so forth.

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“This is what is happening to the teaching profession. So please, my message to you all today, please, we need teachers. If there are no teachers, there is no future. And if there is no future, who will teach your children? Who will teach your grandchildren? Who will provide the leaders of tomorrow? The teachers make the presidents. The teachers make the engineers. They make the architects, the doctors, the lawyers, and everybody else.

“So if you all run away from teaching, there is going to be a bigger crisis. So please, I would like to call upon you all matriculating students, to ensure that you remain within this profession. I promise you, Nigeria will not disappoint you. And I believe that your reward is not only in heaven. Your reward definitely, you deserve it here on earth. I don’t know whether I can make a promise, but I want to believe the work that the provost and his team will be doing here will ensure that we keep engaging the critical stakeholders, the critical providers, to make sure teaching is once more restored. So we are having problems not only in general classrooms, but in the rural areas especially we don’t have teachers.

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She stated that Nigeria is thinking towards moving forward and thinking of giving teachers the requisite recognition through a policy called the National Teacher Education Policy, explaining, “that policy is talking about how to make teachers’ salaries, welfare, at the forefront of the government of the day, especially. So a lot of reforms are coming. And the reforms are supposed to make sure that the teaching profession is restored to its previous glorious days.

“So I know that most of you will be going to the rural areas, but I am appealing to you to consider going to rural areas because that is where the work is. We need to do that. We cannot continue to have zero access to education in the rural areas. But we find a lot of the NCEE graduates preferring to teach in the urban areas and also in secondary schools. That is why the quality of education in this country is getting worse and worse and worse every day. You find that the unqualified teachers are the ones teaching the foundation years. Foundation schools are very important. And that brings my mind to another issue that I noticed in the profile of the graduating students today.

“Primary education is the bedrock of the education sector. I’d like to see more people coming into the PAS department, the Primary Education Studies department, to provide quality teachers for the primary education sector. I know that you’re also teaching in the junior secondary school sector, but the most important foundational stage is the primary school. This is the way to go in Nigeria if we want to change the education profile of this country”.

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In her speech, the state Commissioner for Tertiary Education, Professor Uche Eme-Uche, represented by her Permanent Secretary, Barr Chinyere Okeziem-Nwoko explained, “teacher education, is the backbone of any progressive society. As aspiring educators, you are not just pursuing a career you are embracing a calling. You are being prepared to become leaders in classrooms, mentors in communities, and role models in our society.

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“In Abia State, our education loving Governor Dr Alex Chioma Otti, recognizes the vital role that Colleges of Education play in the training of qualified teachers. This is why the State through Ministry of Tertiary Education continues to work closely with our institutions to improve infrastructure, revise curriculum to meet contemporary needs, enhance research capacity, and ensure the overall quality of teacher training. The world is changing rapidly, and the classrooms of today are not the same as those of yesterday. As future teachers, you must be equipped not only to teach but also to inspire creativity resilience, and innovation among your future students”.

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Earlier in his speech, the Provost of the school, Dr. Titus Ezeme informed, “the College has been allocated a take-off grant by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND). We also look forward, with optimism, to further interventions from TETFUND and other relevant agencies, which will help consolidate the infrastructural foundation of our young institution.”

While highlighting federal government interventions in the institution, the construction of a 74-room female hostel, the Provost called for assistance over modern lecture theatres and academic staff blocks, building complexes, a reliable generating set and solar lighting system, construction of the college access road and internal roads, modern administrative block, modern library complex, ICT building, college clinic, perimeter fencing and operational and utility vehicles.
(TRIBUNE)

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