Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), on Tuesday urged the Nigerian government to step up efforts against the rising appeal of nicotine and tobacco products among young people, warning that flavors, sleek designs and digital marketing are being used to hook a new generation.
The call came during a press briefing to mark World No Tobacco Day 2026, themed Unmasking the Appeal: Countering Nicotine and Tobacco Addiction. The event coincided with the Make Big Tobacco Pay Global Week of Action, June 1-5.
CAPPA said the tobacco industry is “reinventing how it attracts and retains consumers” as public awareness of smoking dangers grows and traditional control measures tighten.
The group said products such as vapes, heated tobacco devices and nicotine pouches are being marketed as cleaner, safer alternatives to cigarettes despite health risks and addiction concerns, especially for youth.
Citing its recent report, New Smoke Trap: New and Emerging Nicotine and Tobacco Products, Youth Exposure and Policy Gaps in Nigeria, CAPPA said it documented 781 nicotine and tobacco-related products during surveillance in Lagos, Enugu and the Federal Capital Territory.
“Of those, 573 were new and emerging products. The products are brightly colored, compact, and often resembling cosmetics, flash drives, pens or toys,” the group said.
“Flavors such as mango, strawberry, bubble gum, mint and candy mask the nicotine’s harshness and serve as important entry points for addiction,” it added.
CAPPA called on government, policymakers, regulators, parents, educators, media and communities to recognize that the industry is steadily reinventing how it attracts young consumers.
“The tobacco industry has always survived by changing its costume while preserving its central business model, which is the manufacture of addiction for profit,” CAPPA Assistant Executive Director Zikora Ibeh said in a statement.
“For decades, cigarettes were its most recognizable product. Today, however, the market is changing rapidly with the introduction of a growing range of new nicotine and tobacco products.”
Ibeh said the industry understands that young people are drawn to novelty, identity and experimentation, and it has placed those, including flavors, at the center of its new nicotine strategy.
She said the World Health Organization’s recent call for governments to prohibit flavors 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,” Ibeh said.
She said 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 normalized.”
“Nigeria must therefore go beyond taxation and adopt stronger measures to prevent the promotion and intake of these products, especially among young people,” Ibeh said.
She listed stricter marketing controls, a ban on youth-oriented designs and packaging, a ban on flavored nicotine products, restrictions on sales to minors, and extending public-use restrictions to vapes and other emerging products.
CAPPA Executive Director Akinbode Oluwafemi said the industry’s goal is to get people hooked on harmful products.
“For decades, the tobacco industry sold cigarettes, cigars and other tobacco products by disguising addiction as ‘sophistication,’ ‘freedom,’ ‘success’ and ‘modernity,’” Oluwafemi said. “Today, as public awareness of the dangers of smoking grows and tobacco control measures become stronger in Nigeria and across the world, the industry and its allies have changed their tactics. They have changed their language, changed their products, changed their smells and changed their packaging.”
He warned against the glamorization of smoking at cultural festivals, citing the just-concluded Ojude Oba Festival where copycats of Farooq Oreagba, who popularized smoking at the event, were seen.
“Our culture should never be appropriated as a vehicle for promoting addiction and disease,” Oluwafemi said. “No cultural event should become an opportunity — whether directly or indirectly — for tobacco interests to market harmful products, normalize smoking or influence young people.”
Public health expert Dr. Goke Akinrogunde said the new tobacco products are already taking a toll on public health, with a spike in cases of young people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
“It’s a chronic condition that affects how you breathe, such that your breathing capacity gradually becomes reduced, up to the point that it will actually affect your functionality and by so doing, it will also affect your productivity,” Akinrogunde said.
He added that smoking is a major risk factor for lung cancer and heart disease, and that pregnant women who smoke have a higher risk of congenital diseases in newborns.
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