Emma Okonji
A public health advocate and consultant with the Lagos State Ministry of Health, Godswill Iboma, has called on governments at the federal and state levels to come up with policies that will control tobacco intake among Nigerians, insisting that tobacco has no clinical benefits and can lead to preventable death.
According to him, every few years, Sweden captures global attention in public health, not necessarily because it has solved a problem, but because it has approached it differently.
“Sweden has become one of the most closely studied case studies in tobacco, having reduced its daily smoking rate down to roughly five per cent, among the lowest recorded anywhere in Europe, where the regional average sits closer to 24 per cent.
“For researchers and policymakers, however, the significance goes beyond the statistic itself. The more useful question is how Sweden reached the point, what factors contributed to the decline, and what lessons, if any, can responsibly be drawn from its experience,” Iboma said in a statement.
He explained that Sweden’s decline in smoking is generally attributed to a long-running combination of measures, including sustained tobacco-control policies, public education, restrictions on smoking in public spaces, and the availability of regulated smoke-free nicotine products.
These include snus, an oral tobacco product with deep roots in Swedish culture, used by some adults who might otherwise continue smoking.
According to the statement, “That distinction matters because Sweden’s experience is sometimes oversimplified. It should be viewed not as a template to be automatically replicated, but as a case study to be critically evaluated.
“More broadly, it is a reminder that public-health policy is strengthened when it evolves through continuous assessment of evidence rather than fixed assumptions or imported conclusions.“
The debate has brought renewed attention to Tobacco Harm Reduction (THR), a body of research examining whether adult smokers who would otherwise continue to smoke might reduce their exposure to harmful chemicals by switching completely away from combustible cigarettes to regulated smoke-free alternatives.
Other countries have approached this question differently, reflecting variation in regulatory philosophies, public-health priorities and national circumstances rather than a single emerging global consensus.”
He said since the United Kingdom has incorporated regulated vaping products into its stop-smoking services for adults under clinical guidance, and Japan has recorded a marked shift in cigarette consumption following the introduction of heated tobacco products, Nigeria’s government must reflect on the global measure to address tobacco intake in Nigeria.
“Nigeria has already made real progress through legislation, sustained public awareness efforts, and implementation of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
“But as tobacco and nicotine products continue to evolve, the next phase of Nigeria’s approach should remain firmly anchored in credible scientific evidence, allowing regulation to keep pace with scientific developments without losing sight of the overarching objective of protecting public health, particularly young people and other vulnerable groups,” Iboma further said.
According to him, as the evidence continues to evolve, the objective that should anchor every jurisdiction’s response remains constant: reducing smoking-related disease, protecting vulnerable populations, and ensuring that policy is built on credible research and evidence rather than assumption or imported uncertainty.