As the world marks World No Tobacco Day 2026 under the theme, “Unmasking the Appeal: Countering Nicotine and Tobacco Addiction,” and as part of the Make Big Tobacco Pay Global Week of Action taking place from June 1 to 5, 2026, Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), in collaboration with allies, calls on the Nigerian government, policymakers, regulators, parents, educators, media practitioners, and communities to recognise a troubling reality: the tobacco industry is steadily reinventing how it attracts and retains consumers and victims of its deadly products, particularly young people.
The tobacco industry has always survived by changing its costume while preserving its central business model, which is the manufacture of addiction for profit. For decades, cigarettes were its most recognisable product. Today, however, the market is changing rapidly with the introduction of a growing range of new nicotine and tobacco products.
As public awareness of the dangers of smoking has increased and tobacco control measures have become stronger across different climes, the industry has shifted its focus towards products such as vapes or electronic cigarettes, heated tobacco products, and nicotine pouches. These products are heavily marketed as cleaner, safer, and more socially acceptable than cigarettes, despite growing concerns that they may expose users to health risks and increase the likelihood of nicotine addiction, especially among young people.
CAPPA’s recent report, New Smoke Trap: New and Emerging Nicotine and Tobacco Products, Youth Exposure and Policy Gaps in Nigeria, documents the rapid spread of these products across Nigerian retail and digital spaces, including supermarkets, nightlife venues, online platforms, and informal markets, showing that Nigeria is no longer facing a future threat but a present and expanding nicotine crisis. In a focused surveillance exercise across Lagos, Enugu, and the Federal Capital Territory, CAPPA documented 781 nicotine and tobacco-related products, out of which 573 fell within the category of new and emerging nicotine and tobacco products.
The most disturbing part of this expansion is not only the number of products but the way they are designed. These products are built to lower resistance. They are brightly coloured, compact, fragrant, sweet, discreet, and technologically attractive. Many resemble cosmetics, flash drives, pens, toys, or small electronic gadgets, allowing them to move through schools, homes, cars, malls, and social spaces without attracting the same suspicion that cigarettes would ordinarily provoke.
The industry understands that young people are naturally drawn to novelty, identity, and experimentation, and it has placed all of these, including flavours at the centre of its new nicotine strategy. Mango, strawberry, bubble gum, mint, menthol, vanilla, candy, and other sweet flavours found in vapes and nicotine pouches are not just consumer preferences; they serve as important entry points for addiction. By masking the harshness of nicotine, these flavours make experimentation feel less risky than it actually is and encourage continued use among young people.
This concern is reflected in the experiences shared by several young people who have spoken to us about their introduction to these products. Many described being drawn in by appealing flavours and lifestyle-oriented marketing messages before developing a regular pattern of use.
It is against this backdrop that the recent call by the World Health Organization for governments to prohibit flavours and additives, including menthol, in tobacco and nicotine products should be understood as an urgent public health measure. For countries such as Nigeria, where the youth population is large, regulatory systems are still evolving, and digital marketing often moves faster than enforcement, the need for preventive action has become increasingly important.
Nigeria has taken an important step by bringing new and emerging nicotine products such as vapes and nicotine pouches under its excise tax regime, even though the current tax burden remains relatively low. The World Health Organization has consistently urged governments to tax all tobacco and nicotine products and to use taxation as a public health tool to reduce affordability and discourage uptake, particularly among young people. While Nigeria’s current tax levels leave significant room for improvement, the decision to include these products within the tax framework deserves recognition because taxation remains one of the most effective measures for reducing consumption and preventing addiction.
But taxation alone cannot carry the full burden of tobacco control, because a product can be taxed and still become fashionable, accessible, socially admired, and culturally normalised. The state may collect revenue from these products, but if it fails to restrict their appeal, visibility, flavours, advertising, digital promotion, and youth access, it will merely be taxing addiction while allowing the market to recruit its next generation.
Nigeria must therefore go beyond taxation and adopt stronger measures to prevent the promotion and intake of these products, especially among young people. This includes stricter controls on marketing, prohibiting youth-oriented designs and packaging, banning flavoured nicotine products, imposing comprehensive restrictions on sales to minors, strengthening enforcement mechanisms, extending restrictions on public use to vapes and other emerging nicotine products just as they apply to traditional cigarettes, and remaining vigilant against the subtle ways nicotine products are being woven into everyday life and popular culture. It also means ensuring that all new and emerging nicotine products are subjected to the full scope of tobacco control regulations.
At the same time, regulators and public health authorities must recognise that the battle is also increasingly being fought in culture itself. Despite the country’s hard-won gains in tobacco control, tobacco and nicotine is steadily becoming associated with celebration, celebrity culture, and social media performance.
One example is the growing public display of cigar smoking at cultural celebrations such as Ojude Oba. Ojude Oba is a rich and important cultural festival, and its significance as a celebration of Yoruba heritage should not be overshadowed by the conduct of individuals who have turned tobacco use into a public spectacle.
However, we must be honest about what is happening. In recent years, images of men such as Farooq Oreagba smoking cigars at the festival have circulated widely on social media and even television, often accompanied by narratives of prestige, masculinity, affluence, and cultural confidence. As these images gain popularity, more people are beginning to associate cigar smoking with social status and admiration. Today, men, women, and young persons are scrambling to strike a pose that present cigars as symbols of sophistication.
This development should concern public health advocates and regulatory authorities because public smoking is prohibited under Nigeria’s tobacco control laws. Yet the growing admiration for cigar smoking in highly visible cultural spaces demonstrates how easily social approval can undermine public health gains. When a tobacco product becomes associated with success and status, young people are unlikely to see its health risks first. Instead, they will see aspiration. They will see men and women praised for looking “powerful and having steeze”. They will see nicotine wrapped in agbada, horses, colour, and applause.
This is why Nigeria’s response to counter the appeal of these products must be comprehensive and decisive. Nigeria must also enforce existing laws against public smoking and tobacco promotion, including in cultural, entertainment, hospitality, and nightlife spaces. Cultural festivals must not become soft advertising grounds for tobacco products.
The media also has a crucial role to play in this struggle. Journalists and media practitioners must resist the temptation to report nicotine and tobacco products as mere lifestyle trends or consumer innovations. They must ask harder questions about who is being targeted, who is being exposed, what the law says, where enforcement is failing, and how young Nigerians are being drawn into addiction through aesthetics, flavours, social media, and cultural glamour.
As Nigeria marks World No Tobacco Day 2026, we urge the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, the National Broadcasting Commission, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), the National Tobacco Control Committee, state governments, and all relevant regulatory authorities to intensify enforcement of existing tobacco control laws and regulations.
Particular attention must be paid to reducing the appeal of tobacco and nicotine products, restricting their promotion across traditional and digital media, preventing youth exposure, and ensuring that the tobacco industry’s influence does not undermine public health objectives.
We also call for increased allocation to the Tobacco Control Fund to support public education, enforcement, research, monitoring, and other tobacco control activities necessary to address the growing threat posed by emerging nicotine and tobacco products. The appeal of these products is carefully designed. Countering that appeal will require equally deliberate action. Nigeria must act now to protect present and future generations from nicotine addiction and the harms associated with tobacco use.
