President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu has stated that previous governments did not take action against tobacco in order to achieve political gains.

Speaking at a ceremony held at the President's Office today to ratify the amendment to the Tobacco Control Act banning tobacco use for all those born on or after January 1, 2007, the President said that while the number of cancer patients in the Maldives is increasing, the biggest contributing factor is tobacco use.

However, he also said that governments have not worked to reduce such diseases.

"What we see is that adequate measures have not been taken at the government level to stop these lifestyle diseases in our country. There was no political will. The politically safe side is always prioritized. In reality, prioritizing the country and sincerely tackling such an issue for the benefit of the country's people has not been done so far," the President said.

The President said that what's important to him is bringing real solutions to issues. He also said that those involved in the tobacco business are unhappy with him because of the measures taken against tobacco, but he doesn't care if they are unhappy.