New Report reveals how Tobacco Industry has Captured the Virtual Space in Nigeria

A new report by the Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) has found that the tobacco industry is cleverly exploiting social networking platforms to promote their Corporate Social Responsibility (CRS) activities, market tobacco products, and circumvent Nigeria’s National Tobacco Control Act 2015 and its regulations.

The report, Tobacco Industry Capture of the Virtual Space in Nigeria documents how British American Tobacco Nigeria (BATN), through its charity arm – British American Tobacco Nigeria Foundation (BATNF), Philip Morris International Nigeria Limited (PMINL) and other tobacco entities operating in Nigeria perform visibility activities that burnish their images, distance them from the harms of their products, and attract favourable comments on the internet.

The research, supported by a grant from the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union) on behalf of STOP, a global tobacco industry watchdog, researched popular social networking platforms between 2016 and 2021 and flagged 226 activities involving tobacco companies and their allies in Nigeria. The activities are categorized under CSR, promotions, recognition, endorsement, partnerships, advertising, and sponsorships.

It documented how tobacco companies while embarking on their CSR activities deploy different strategies to gain the affection of policymakers, reflect partnerships and collaboration with state institutions and organizations that ultimately help them build good public ratings. It also exposed growing cases of tobacco industry vendors such as Smoke Box Ng and Da Smoke Hub flouting the ban on advertising, promotion, and sponsorships by using their social media platforms to flagrantly market tobacco products. Some of the platforms most exploited by the tobacco industry include Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Blogs, and LinkedIn, while the sectors the industry is most active include agriculture, education, and entertainment. The most visibility activities performed by the tobacco industry were observed in 2018 and 2021.

The report also observed that certain gaps in the National Tobacco Control Act 2015, and National Tobacco Control Regulations 2019 as regards the ban on Tobacco Advertising Promotion and Sponsorships (TAPS) provide allowances for the tobacco industry to carry on business as usual in contravention of tobacco control in Nigeria.  It noted that with over 109.2 million internet users at the start of January 2022, the increasing usage of the internet in Nigeria bolstered by its burgeoning young demographic, comprising more than 70 percent of its over 200 million population, makes it a highly desirable market for the tobacco industry.

CAPPA Executive Director, Akinbode Oluwafemi said that the research reflects that the online activities of the tobacco industry in Nigeria threaten tobacco control and undermine tobacco control laws. These threats include the normalization of the tobacco industry and its products, unchecked advertising, promotions, and sponsorships, unrestricted sales of tobacco products to minors, and increased harm to public health among other perils. The implications of these observations are that the tobacco industry is strategically using the new media and internet to connect and attract millions of users while readily accepting strict advertising bans in traditional media.

In his intervention, CAPPA Director of Programmes, Philip Jakpor explained that the research documented worrisome trend of endorsement that tobacco industry CSR receive from state institutions which tend to give legitimacy to portraying them as socially responsible.

Jakpor revealed that some state governments including Lagos and Oyo have particularly been very noticeable in their endorsement of tobacco industry CSR and celebrate their partnerships brazenly in violation of guidelines of Article 5.3 of the World Health Organisation Framework on Tobacco Control (WHO-FCTC).

Specifically, Article 5.3 legally obligates Parties to the treaty “to protect their public health policies related to tobacco control from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry.

Speaking on how the findings were made, Ogunlade Olamide and Zikora Ibeh, CAPPA Programme Manager and Research Officer respectively, said that the research involved the scanning of online publications and posts by the tobacco industry on social networking sites between 2016 and 2021 and analyzing them.

They noted that the tobacco industry used Facebook more than any other platform in visibilizing their activities. This is followed by twitter and YouTube. LinkedIn is the least used platform by the tobacco industry.

They also revealed that tobacco vendors and distributors such as Smokehubng and Dasmokehub, use their social media platforms to aggressively promote sales of tobacco products and a smoking culture which relies largely on promoting content showing Nigerian music icons smoking profusely.

The report urged the Nigerian government to urgently do the following:

1. Protect public health policies with respect to tobacco control from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry in line with Article 5.3 of the WHO-FCTC and commit to implementing these measures across all branches of government that may have an interest in, or the capacity to, affect public health policies with respect to tobacco control.
2. Strictly enforce Section 12 of the National Tobacco Control Act 2015 which prohibits all forms of TAPS including CSR that advertise or promote the tobacco industry.
3. Review legal provisions and terms in the National Tobacco Control Act, 2015, that are vague, without interpretation, and likely to be subjectively interpreted by the tobacco industry and its allies. This includes providing clear definitions of terms such as ‘‘internet’’, ‘‘mail’’, ‘‘online’’, and ‘‘social media’’ that address TAPS in the virtual space.
4. Strictly enforce Section 25 of the National Tobacco Control Act 2015 which stipulates transparency, openness, and publicly available records of meetings and all interactions with the tobacco industry.
5. Train and engage the media, social media professionals, and digital influencers to raise awareness of the dangers of TAPS on the internet and play crucial roles in safeguarding the virtual platforms from TI manipulation.
6. Strengthen collaboration among relevant MDAs to perform oversight functions including, actively monitor and flag infractions of tobacco policies on the internet by the tobacco industry.
7. Enforce penalties for TAPS and tobacco control violations in compliance and accordance with national tobacco control and policy.

Civil Society Organizations to:

1. Sensitize the public on provisions of Nigeria’s national tobacco control policies including the dangers of tobacco products.
2. Call out and hold the tobacco industry accountable for activities that violate the NTC Act 2015 and the NTC Regulations 2019
3. Continually urge the Nigerian government to strictly enforce and implement provisions of the NTC Act 2015, and the NTC Regulations 2019 that regulate and monitor the activities of the tobacco industry in the virtual and non-virtual space
4. Prevail on relevant state actors and institutions to put public safety and health above profits.

The Media to:

1. Assist in shaping public narratives on the dangers of tobacco use
2. Institute internal mechanisms that monitor and sieve out media reports, releases, and news items that advance or promote the business of TI in the virtual space.
3. Engage in media advocacy to strengthen the effectiveness of tobacco control policies and laws.