Former Director-General of Ghana Health Service and leading member of the Convention People’s Party, Professor Agyemang Badu Akosa has called for the use of an Executive Instrument to ban smoking in public places ahead of the passage of the Tobacco Bill into law. He said the passage of the Tobacco Bill into law was long overdue and needed strong political to get it done soon. “For the past seven years we have done whatever we can to get the Bill into law but it has not even gotten to Cabinet yet – but we do not have to wait because people are dying – we need an administrative fiat to stop people from smoking in public places,” he told Asempa News. Prof. Akosa noted that the first world public health treaty Ghana ratified 50 years ago was the “No Tobacco Treaty,” but since then many African countries have enacted laws restricting tobacco smoking in public but it was sad that Ghana was yet to do same. “Considering the speed with which we drafted the Tobacco Bill it is strange that up till now we have not passed it into law,” he said. According to Prof. Akosa, tobacco should have been banned from the world 50 years ago. Prof. Akosa was worried that it seemed governments in Ghana had no commitment towards protecting Ghanaians from the effects of tobacco. He noted that foreign nationals gather in several public places in Ghana and smoke and Ghanaians are affected by it but the government was doing nothing to stop that. Meanwhile Asempa News has been asking some Ghanaians whether they would want to date smokers; some say they would not in a million years date a smoker, but others see nothing wrong with it. Story by Yaa Asantewaa/Asempa FM/Ghana