Background:
Tobacco use has been a recognized risk factor for a many diseases including Oral Cancer. Social disparities have been found to exist in smoking patterns in most populations but there has not been a concerted effort to quantify or describe the pattern of tobacco use and Nicotine dependence from tobacco use at the population level in Nigeria.

Methods:
This was part of a larger population based cross-sectional study in Lagos State Nigeria in which the subjects were selected from the three Senatorial districts of Lagos state in a multistage sampling technique. Data was collected with a structured self-administered or interviewer administered questionnaire, an oral examination and validation of tobacco use with Bedfont Pico smokerlyzer. Fagerstrom test for Nicotine dependence was used to determine level of dependence.

Results:
A total of 2429 subjects were interviewed and examined. They were aged between 10 and 86 years with a mean age of 34 (sd 14.29). There were 58.4% males and 42.6% females. Prevalence of ever smoked was 28.55% while prevalence of current smoking was 9.2% of total and 32.25% of ever smoked. Of the current smokers, 57% were males and 43% were females. Nearly half of smokers (49%) commenced the habit by age 18years. Daily smoking was reported by 73.6% while 62.2% smoked 10 sticks or less per day. Public places were the most common sites (28.1%) for smoking. Most (78%) smokers purchased cigarettes as individual sticks. About half (49.7%) of the smokers showed low levels of Nicotine dependence while 75% desired to quit smoking.

Conclusions:
The prevalence is higher than national average even though most smokers are light smokers and have low dependence. Health education and strict implementation of anti-smoking policies of the Federal Government of Nigeria is recommended.