“ A habit”, they say, “ is easy to form, but difficult to stop”. And so it is with smoking- a bad habit which many people gradually and without knowing the consequences, got into and now find it difficult weaning themselves off it. To such people, smoking is like eating: a source of sustenance without which life becomes misery or loses its meaning .One may tempted to ask why; why do people smoke?- or better still, what benefits do smokers derive from smoking?. An act someone humorously but cynically called “ burning your money and your life without really knowing what you doing. This is really what non-smokers take smoking to be and would wish to appeal to addicts to drop that dangerous habit. A smoker friend of mine confessed that he leant the habit secretly, trying always to avoid his parents not catching him. That was when he got his first job, after his secondary school Education; he wanted to look big, impress the girls, and prove that he had arrived. He even bought a tobacco pipe and a box of “Erin more”, the brand his father loved. Unfortunately his father caught him in the act and reprimanded and forbade him to smoke. My friend said he felt bad and lie that he was smoking for the first time and promise not repeat it. Forbidden fruits (like the fruit in the Biblical Garden of Eden) taste sweetest and so my friend could not resist the urge and therefore, went back surreptitiously. To him, “Daddy reprimand did not sound convincing because Daddy smoked a lot, and why can’t I?. He wanted to look grown up and responsible like his Dad, and therefore, he continued secretly. His mother caught him again and in short she cried, begging him to stop smoking and live a long life for her sake. “ Why could she not prevail on Daddy to stop smoking and live longer for her sake? There again, Mummy did not sound convincing”. After all, I’m not her husband!” He sums it up by saying ‘ it is too late now. I can’t stop smoking. So long as someone must die of one brief illness or the other, let smoking be the cause of my death any day it happens and so, was it with him. That is the problem with old habit; they stick! Like the forbidden fruit of Eden, the old Adam in smoking knows that it is dangerous to be addicted to nicotine but they continue all the same- probably because they lack the will power to stop smoking.
In my country non- smoking tried to smoke. They said they wanted to keep warm because of the unusual cold weather; the girls said they chewed gums for the same reason. Here in my country Nigeria, where it forever summer why do my people still smoke?. True to the white man sense of accurate information and leaving noting to chance or doubt, every packet of cigarette carries the inscription warning that people that it contains poison and that smoker are liable to die young. But to my observation people say it provide them relaxation and make them feel good. Some say when they are provoked they smoke it off with cigarette and to the extent they even go as far to their enemies to get cigarette or even starve their families just to have enough money for such oppressive habit. No adequate reason justices smoking other than habit. Smokers themselves know it but are incapable of helping themselves out of the rot. Now, if you are addicted to smoking, have you ever asked yourself where all this smokes that I have been taking where it settles?. Imagine the sight of a chimney how it looks like. Black with soot and so should your lungs be like. The popular jingle “ Federal Ministry of health warns that smoking is dangerous to health” Is not adequate protection for the masses. Adequate remedy lies in the banning of cigarette productions. But since this is one of the world major means of making money, I don’t see my proposal acceptable. However, a word in just enough for the wise: remember, the way that seems good to a man, the end is destructions, “like it happened to my friend”. Therefore to all my people I think we should stop
smoking, because is just a means of dying slowly, in short, installments.
One love.