Nigeria has slipped further in defending public health policies against tobacco industry influence, scoring 62 out of 100 in the 2025 Tobacco Industry Interference (TII) Index, up from 60 in 2023 and placing the country 54th among 100 nations assessed.
The report, unveiled Thursday in Lagos by Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), covers April 2023 to March 2025 and forms part of a global civil society initiative anchored on Article 5.3 of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO-FCTC).
“Nigeria’s worsening 62 confirms that industry interference remains a systemic threat to our public health architecture,” said Akinbode Oluwafemi, CAPPA executive director.
Oluwafemi accused tobacco firms of exploiting weak enforcement of the National Tobacco Control Act to masquerade as development partners through corporate social responsibility (CSR) schemes.
Read also: ActionAid, GIZ graduate 130 beneficiaries under ReConnect Project in Lagos
British American Tobacco Nigeria Foundation (BATNF) programs like borehole donations, scholarships, and reforestation drives, were singled out as sophisticated strategies to embed itself in governance systems, despite legal bans on such partnerships. High-level officials, including Seyi Makinde, Oyo state governor and Tajudeen Abbas, house speaker, a former BAT employee, have attended and praised these events, CAPPA noted.
A major setback came in 2023 when the government suspended tobacco excise taxes, reversing earlier alignment with WHO and ECOWAS standards. “This shifted costs to citizens while protecting industry profits,” the report stated.
Transparency gaps persist as section 25 of the tobacco control law mandates disclosure of official interactions with the industry, yet most agencies fail to comply. Few public servants have received training on WHO-FCTC Article 5.3, leaving many unaware that attending tobacco-funded events violates ethics.
Progress was acknowledged in the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission’s $110 million fine against BAT Nigeria in 2023 and the National Film and Video Censors Board’s ban on glamorizing smoking in Nollywood films.
CAPPA’s seven-point assessment: policymaking participation, CSR, benefits to industry, unnecessary interaction, transparency, conflict of interest, and preventive measures, showed “for every rule that should keep the industry out, another action quietly lets it in.”
The Index, coordinated globally by the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA), urges Nigeria to ban tobacco CSR, restore inflation-adjusted excise taxes, enforce 60 percent pictorial health warnings, and exclude industry representatives from policy talks, including those on e-cigarettes and snus.
“What is at stake is the health of our democracy, the ability of public institutions to act independently of corporate capture,” Oluwafemi warned.
