Nigeria’s Health Financing: Lessons From Canada’s $32.5bn Tobacco Settlement
By Robert Egbe Nigeria’s decision to earmark SIN taxes – levies on alcohol, tobacco, and sugary drinks – for health financing signals a firm commitment to prioritising citizens’ health. It also aligns with long-standing calls from Nigerian public health advocates and the World Health Organisation (WHO). The move could not be timelier. Earlier this year, […]
From Oil Fields to Solar Grids: What Addis Climate Summit Means for Nigeria
By Robert Egbe As African leaders wrapped up the Second Africa Climate Summit (ACS-2) in Addis Ababa last week, one message stood out clearly: the continent can no longer wait for others to set its climate agenda. For Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and its largest oil producer, the stakes could not be higher. Held […]
Green Minerals: Africa Must Speak With One Voice, Says UN At Climate Summit
By Robert Egbe Nigeria and other African countries must seize the continent’s vast reserves of critical green minerals to fuel not just the world’s clean energy transition but also its own industrial growth and prosperity, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Claver Gatete, told delegates at the Second […]
WHO Urges Nigeria: Raise Prices On Sugary Drinks, Alcohol, Tobacco By 50% To Save Lives
By Robert Egbe The World Health Organisation (WHO) has advised Nigeria and other member countries to raise the prices of sugary drinks, alcohol and tobacco by 50 per cent through taxation over the next 10 years, to help curb rising non-communicable diseases (WHO). In a statement published on its website, the United Nations (UN) health […]
Vaping in Nigeria: Green Outside, Deadly Within
By Robert Egbe When, during the 1920s, the American public began to identify smoking as the cause of their persistent cough, throat irritation, and other related diseases, tobacco companies – fearing a threat to their profits – began a devious media blitz. Using mostly models who posed as doctors, they falsely claimed that cigarettes were […]
Tobacco Control Protecting 6.1bn People, Says WHO in New Report
The World Health Organisation (WHO) today released its report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic 2025 at the World Conference on Tobacco Control in Dublin, warning that action is needed to maintain and accelerate progress in tobacco control as rising industry interference challenges tobacco policies and control efforts. The report focuses on the six proven WHO […]
MRA Seeks Stronger Legal, Institutional Protections for Whistleblowers
LAGOS, Monday, June 23, 2025: Media Rights Agenda (MRA) has called on the Federal Government to take urgent and concrete steps to strengthen legal and institutional protections for whistleblowers in recognition of their critical role in exposing corruption, human rights abuses and other wrongdoing, describing them as a cornerstone of transparency, accountability, and good governance. In a […]
CSOs Back King Dakolo’s Suit Against Shell’s Niger Delta Exit
Civil society groups and environmental justice advocates have thrown their weight behind a landmark lawsuit by His Royal Majesty, King Bubaraye Dakolo, Agada IV of the Ekpetiama Kingdom, challenging oil giant Shell’s planned divestment from its onshore operations in Nigeria’s Niger Delta. The lawsuit, filed at the Federal High Court in Yenagoa, names Shell, the […]
Food Safety Fears: HOMEF, ERA, Others Demand Moratorium on GMOs
Health of Mother Earth Foundation, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, and the GMO-free Nigeria Alliance have called on the Federal Government to place a moratorium on the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and their products in Nigeria. The group, in a statement marking World Food Safety Day 2025, highlighted the urgency of […]
HOMEF Sympathises with Mokwa Flood Victims, Seeks Proactive Govt Action
The Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) has sympathised with victims of the recent devastating flood that struck Mokwa in Niger State, killing 151 people and sacking over 3,000 people in three communities. The ecological think tank, in a statement by its Media/Communication Lead Kome Odhomor, called for immediate measures to address the root cause […]
