A coalition of tobacco control organisations has called for the immediate recall of the National Tobacco Control Act (Amendment) Bill, 2025, warning that the proposed legislation would weaken existing tobacco control measures and expose more Nigerians, especially young people, to tobacco and nicotine products.
The groups, in a joint statement issued on Thursday, urged the relevant committees of the National Assembly to recall the bill and called on President Bola Tinubu to withhold assent if it is transmitted to him.
The coalition argued that rather than strengthening regulation, the bill would dismantle key protections contained in the National Tobacco Control Act, 2015, by creating a more permissive framework for electronic cigarettes, heated tobacco products, nicotine pouches and other non-combustible tobacco products.
“The bill must not advance, regardless of its current administrative stage after passage through the National Assembly,” the coalition said.
The organisations said the amendment would reverse the public health principles underpinning the 2015 Act by granting newer tobacco and nicotine products freedoms denied conventional cigarettes.
