By Yunus S Saliu
The Ministry of Health through its Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) Unit and partners on Friday, 30th August 2024 held its quarterly briefing about development made on tobacco control concerning enforcement of the Tobacco Act 2016 across the country, the quarterly briefing took place at the Central Medical Stores, Kotu.
In his remarks, Omar Badjie, Program Manager of the NCD said there are a series of activities sponsored undertaking by the unit, saying it is a one-year project, noteworthy among them is creating awareness on the Tobacco Act 2016 Act, its implementation, enforcement and also engaging the public on the content of the Act.
He noted that tobacco control is not an easy task, and it is not the responsibility of a single entity, therefore, “It is the responsibility of all the stakeholders, including the media,” while imploring the partners to continue the enforcement as usual.
Michael Mendy, Director of Health Promotion Education at the Ministry of Health welcomed members of the press corps to the quarterly briefing saying it is good that day to update the general public about their interventions from time to time and the only way to do it is through the media.
He dilated on some of the activities saying it is with collective efforts that the use of tobacco can be controlled, though “it is a difficult task, but it is always easy when we put our hands on deck and work collectively, thus the exercise needs collective effort.”
He explained further that those who are non-smokers are still affected “That shows that even ourselves, we are not safe. So we have to come up strongly to implement all the interventions that we have put in place so that we can have a free tobacco country.”
He added that the country is doing a lot and the Tobacco Control Committee is supporting the implementation program, still, there is a need to do more.
Commissioner Pa Bojang and Saikou Singhateh among other officials gave remarks at the briefing jointly held with other partners including the officials of the NCD Unit of the Ministry of Health, GRA, NEA, and GPF.
However, the unit also displayed some of the seized tobaccos during the period of enforcement while they used the opportunity to answer questions from members of the press present at the quarterly briefing.
