ACCRA, Ghana – Amidst the row in which a US court ordered the country’s second largest cigarette company to pay $23.6 billion (£13.8bn) to the wife of a smoker who died of lung cancer, many health professionals in Ghana and Nigeria have begun a conscious effort to caution their governments against tobacco lobbyists.
RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company was hit with the punitive fine in addition to $16.8m (£9.8m) in compensatory damages.
Cynthia Robinson took action against the firm in 2008, seeking compensation for her husband’s death in 1996.
The Network for Accountability of Tobacco Transnational (NATT), has also asked African governments, to be alert of the ploy of tobacco industry lobbyists at the up-coming October conference on economic-viability alternatives in Moscow.
NATT, a coalition of more than 100 organizations in 50 countries gave the advice in a release through the Vision for Alternative Development (VALD), a non-governmental organization in Ghana.
The meeting would be the sixth session of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) Conference of Parties (COP6) for support for economically-viable alternatives to tobacco farming.
The NATT said the tobacco industry intends to use its front group, the International Tobacco Growers Association (ITGA) to influence the talks since it had attacked Article 17 of the FCTC at a previous meeting.
It said at a meeting of the ITGA Africa Region in Harare, this year, its President Francois Van Der Merwe advocated that the organization should be given a slot at the COP6.
The release cited the example of the Uganda Tobacco Growers Association (UTGA), which wrote to the Ugandan parliament demanding the removal of clauses that prohibit partnerships and endorsements with tobacco industry.
The farmers shun proven scientific evidence of the impact of tobacco on health and the environment, debunking them as “exaggerated negative effects of tobacco growing”.
Mr Labram Musah, Programmes Director of VALD and NATT Ghana spokesperson said: “The Zimbabwean and the Ugandan drama are the usual gimmicks of the tobacco industry, which is replicated across Africa.
“The push by ITGA and its national partners for seats at the upcoming talks are to the usual ploy whenever the COP is around the corner. African governments must thwart this ploy.”
“We urge the Ghanaian government to take note of these deceptive engagements by ITGA and its partners.
“Our position remains uncharged: Giving any tobacco industry front group a space on the table during the talks is inadvertently allowing the industry to dictate what is discussed on that table. This is unacceptable.”
Mr Musah appealed to African governments to be vigilant and remain resolute in stymieing any revolving doors which the ITGA proposition of a seat at the COP represents.
