I am not surprised that BAT in Kenya bullied the ministry of health in that country to reduce the size of its warning on the certain negative impact of a new tobacco product.
The only surprise is that the bullying correspondence was identified and made public, Thank To Global Health Now!
All over the African continent, poverty of money and of good governance has meant that BAT continues to gain grounds and make in-road to even difficult to reach communities and the most vulnerable sections of the population especially the young one / youths, as it pushes and pushes tobacco use. This is taking place with government backing across the continent, even though the same governments know that tobacco use exacerbated the poor health of Africans including causing cancer!!
It is tragic that BAT shall continue to bully African countries as it increases its profit to the peril of the unprotected Africans, irrespective of which country.
Today, we read about Kenya, but surely all the other 53 African countries are under the same yoke imposed by BAT as they smile to the bank even as their products are literally killing people every day.
Who can stop it (BAT) and it’s rampage on Africa as the Western countries, even if only partially, restrict and resist the bullying tactics?
Joseph Ana.
HIFA Profile: Joseph Ana is the Lead Senior Fellow/Medical Consultant at the Centre for Clinical Governance Research and Patient Safety (CCGR&PS) with Headquarters in Calabar, Nigeria, established by HRI Global (former HRIWA). He is the Country Coordinator for PACK Nigeria (Practical Approach to Care Kit) which is specifically designed to improve clinical competence (improving accuracy of diagnosis and treatment) in primary health care. He is also a Member of the World Health Organisation’s Technical Advisory Group on Integrated Care in primary, emergency, operative, and critical care (TAG-IC2). As the Cross River State Commissioner for Health (2004-2008), Joseph Ana led the introduction of the evidence based, homegrown quality tool, the 12-Pillar Clinical Governance Programme (12-PCGP) in Nigeria, which also suitable for lower-, low-, and middle income countries (LLMIC) with similar weak health sector and system. To ensure sustainability of 12-PCGP, the ‘Department of Clinical Governance, Servicom & e-health’ was established in Cross River State Ministry of Health in 2007. His main interest is in ‘Whole health sector and system strengthening in LLMICs’. He has written six books on the 12-Pillar Clinical Governance Programme, including the TOOLS manual for its Implementation, currently in its 2nd Edition. He served as Chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association’s Standing Committee on Clinical Governance (2012-2022), and he won the Association’s ‘Award of Excellence’ on three consecutive occasions for the innovation of 12-PCGP in Nigeria. He served as Chairman, Quality & Performance subcommittee of the Technical Working Group for the implementation of the Nigeria Health Act 2014. He was Member, National Tertiary Health Institutions Standards Committee (NTISC) of the Federal Ministry of Health, 2017-2022. He is the pioneer Secretary General/Trustee-Director of the Charity, NMF (Nigerian Medical Forum UK) which took the BMJ to West Africa in 1995. Joseph is a member of the HIFA Steering Group; the HIFA working group on Community Health Workers, and the Working Group on HIFA-WHO Collaboration (http://www.hifa.org/support/members/joseph-0 http://www.hifa.org/people/steering-group). Email: info AT hri-global.org and jneana AT yahoo.co.uk
