The Nigerian Cancer Society (NCS) has petitioned Netflix and other movie industry stakeholders in Nigeria, demanding the removal of smoking scenes from Nollywood movies.
It will be recalled that In December 2021, the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) commenced talks with practitioners and stakeholders in the entertainment industry to enforce a law banning smoking in movies.
The NCS recently put out a public digital petition to mark the launch of its Smoke-Free Nollywood campaign.
Speaking during the campaign, the NCS President Adamu Alhassan Umar, emphasized that tobacco use was responsible for the deaths of over 70,000 Nigerians, adding that movies influenced more than one-third of them to copy the habit.
“Many Nollywood films today contain smoking scenes that glamourise the use of tobacco products such as cigarettes, and Shisha and unconsciously recruit viewers into damaging habits that harm their health,” Umar said.
Speaking further, he said “about a third of smokers started this habit through the influence of movies,” “After all, if their favourite characters are comfortable using tobacco on screen, it feels safe and trendy. But it is not”.
He maintained that Tobacco kills up to half of its users and leaves others with a lifetime of health complications, adding that it is responsible for lung, mouth, throat, bladder, kidney, liver, stomach, pancreas, oesophagus, larynx, colon, rectum, and cervix cancers.
“As the NCS President, I call on Nollywood filmmakers, particularly streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime, and distributors such as FilmOne, Genesis, and Ebony Life, to remove tobacco use from movies,” he said.
The NCS president added that the society’s call is in line with the Nigerian Tobacco Control Act that prohibits tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship, adding that films depicting historical tobacco users as characters must contain strong anti-smoking narratives and health warnings.
