**1. Introduction**

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) as at 2015 already account for more than 80 percent of premature deaths in developing countries and the reported single largest preventable risk factor for NCDs is tobacco smoking [1]. The transition of tobacco hubs from the West to the African continent is of paramount importance, and Nigeria lies at the forefront of the shift from a tobacco-producing to a tobaccoconsuming nation [2]. Smoking is the inhalation of the smoke of burning tobacco encased in cigarettes, pipes, and cigars. Most smokers begin smoking during their adolescent years, and they grow into the habit making nicotine addiction difficult to curb [3]. As these adolescents become adults, they serve as role models to youths, reinforcing a vicious cycle [3]. The health consequences of tobacco smoking depend on the duration and quantity of the smoking behaviour. Starting to smoke early in life increases the risk of NCDs and adolescent smokers are at greatest risk of future morbidity and mortality [4].

This chapter will highlight the prevalence and determinants of smoking in Nigeria, its measured effects on the health and well-being of the citizens, its economic burden, governmental and institutional efforts towards the control of tobacco smoking and the success, if any, of these measures.

**Historical Background:** Cigarette smoking is a mode of consumption of tobacco, *an agricultural* product derived from the leaves of plant *nicotiana*sp*.* Tobacco was first grown as a cash crop in America in 1962 by settlers in James town Virginia USA. Tobacco consumption gradually gained wide publicity through 1880s, through chewing, smoking pipes and hand rolled cigar or cigarettes. However, the invention of the first cigarette–making machine by James Bonsack capable of milling 120,000 sticks of cigarette per day revolutionised the trade, spread and consumption of this product worldwide [5].

There was an astronomic growth in the industry across the globe and consumption was freely rising until 1964 when it witnessed its first set back. The Surgeon General of the USA, Luther L. Terry (MD) issued the first warning dangers on cigarette smoking on January 11th 1964, relating the tar and nicotine content as causes of cancer. His Advisory Committee made their observations and conclusions based on the findings of more than 7,000 articles relating to smoking and disease available at that time in the biomedical literature [6]. They concluded that cigarette smoking was responsible for lung and laryngeal cancers in men, probable cause of lung cancer in women and the most important cause of chronic bronchitis.

The guided restrictions placed on the use of tobacco in Nigeria and other parts of the world were the results of the early steps taken by Luther L. Terry who insisted on warning labels on every cigarette pack [7] which forced tobacco industries to modifying their products by introducing filters and reducing the nicotine contents in their products. The warning labels transformed over years [7] and most developed countries made a stricter conditionality that forced many cigarette companies outside the shores of the US to the developing countries especially in Asia, Africa and South America where they found safe haven to establish their industries.

Generally, the 19th Century was associated with improvement in health research which further revealed other adverse effects of smoking. Subsequently, its ban or reduction in use gained a global attention. Despite the known adverse consequences of tobacco consumption, it is only in the Kingdom of Bhutan (South Asian country) that the sales of tobacco are illegal [8].

Historically, the agenda for a national policy on tobacco control in Nigeria dates back to the pre independence era, it however was not until a decade after the 2005 signing of the World Health Organisation Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) [9, 10]. Economic challenge such as lack of fund and loss of employment by the citizens were some of the reasons cited for the delay in implementing the tobacco compliant policy. This is in difference to the observation by Egbe et al. in their 2017 report that focused on and implicated the tobacco industry as the major influence against the implementation of the WHO FCTC since 2005 when Nigeria ratified the FCTC, until 2015 when the National Tobacco Control Act (NTCA) was signed into law [9, 11].
