Ghanaian artist Camidoh has issued an apology for his recent remarks about smoking.
In a conversation with Joy Prime, he had compared smoking to kenkey vendors working in a smoky environment.
Camidoh explained to Roselyn Felli that while smoking is widely advised against due to its negative impact on lung health, other activities, such as cooking kenkey, also involve exposure to smoke.
He proposed that the perceived harm of smoking may differ and should be evaluated on an individual basis.
“Not everything that is portrayed as negative is negative. Generally, they say we shouldn’t smoke because it’s bad for our lungs. How about our parents who have been cooking kenkey? You see them when they are making kenkey, you see how smoky it gets? I just want to tell you, you don’t have to dwell on that…It is not bad in my eyes,” he said.
Following the interview, Camidoh faced significant backlash on social media.
In response, he has apologized to his fans, acknowledging that his defense of the comment was misplaced.
“Hey yall. I just want to acknowledge that I made an analogy about smoking in a recent interview, and, in hindsight, I realize it was a poor choice and genuinely quite dumb. I’m sincerely sorry for that, and I want to formally retract that statement, along with anything I might have said in its defense. Love, Midoh,” he wrote on X.
Camidoh, who released the track ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ a few months ago, has shared that the song reflects a personal heartbreak that caused him “real pain” and led him to smoke as a way to cope.
Health experts have strongly disagreed with this perspective, emphasizing that smoking is harmful to health.
They point out that smoking significantly increases the risk of serious conditions such as lung cancer and various other cancers.
Moreover, smoking has detrimental effects on eye health, heightening the risk of diseases like age-related macular degeneration, cataracts, dry eye syndrome, diabetic retinopathy, uveitis, Graves’ ophthalmopathy, and optic nerve damage, all of which can impair vision or lead to vision loss.