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• Roles parents, govt, society must play to curb menace
By Vivian Onyebukwa
Recently, the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Yaba, Lagos, said that it recorded a 100 per cent increase in the number of psychiatric patients admitted in the hospital in 2023. The hospital’s Chief Medical Director, Dr Olugbenga Owoeye, made this known at the Annual Score Card presentation tagged: “A Day with the Medical Director”, organised by the hospital in Lagos.
Marwa
According to Owoeye, the increase in admission cases could be attributed to the rising cases of mental health conditions in the country due to the current economic challenges, accompanied by other socio-economic factors, and also increase in admission cases in drug abuse.
The issue of drug abuse in Nigeria has continued to be on the increase. Cocaine, codeine, marijuana, tramadol, amphetamine, heroin, diazepam, cough syrup, to mention a few, are some of these drugs which the users, especially the youths, are growing more appetite for on a daily basis.
Shehu
At the 31st meeting of Heads of National Drug Law Enforcement Agencies held in Abuja last year, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (Rtd) noted that young people are more prone to drug abuse than older generations. According to Marwa, the majority of them being treated in Africa are under the age of 35. The NDLEA boss revealed that to make it worse, the availability of treatment and other services has not kept pace with these developments.
•Ayorinde
NDLEA on the offensive
However, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), is not relenting in fighting the drug war and has continued to employ several measures to tackle the menace. According to the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (Rtd), winning the war against drug trafficking is imperative because of its negative impact on the society.
The agency’s effort, many have said, seems to be paying off with the number of drug dealers being apprehended in various parts of the country on daily basis.
•Ekwueme
The NDLEA boss has continued to call for support from different agencies to help in one way or the other to curb this menace. On a visit to Asaba when he led a delegation to Governor Sheriff Oborevwori at the Delta State Government House, he said the hard drug scourge in Nigeria had become very high, with over 15 million drug users within the age bracket of 15 and 64 years, according to a survey by the United Nations. He then called for the support and cooperation of the state government in the fight against the scourge.
To intensify the war against drug trafficking, Nigeria Customs Service early last year entered into a memorandum of understanding with NDLEA in a move to mitigate suspicion and rivalry between the two agencies, and to intensify security measures at the borderline against drug trafficking.
•Dimanozie
The memoranda, it was believed, would play a significant role in strengthening Nigeria’s war against drug traffickers and in checkmating the illegal activities of criminals across Nigeria’s airports, seaports and land borders.
•Ememchukwu
The then Comptroller General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali (Rtd), who led the management team of the Nigeria Customs Service to the Headquarters of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, said that the MoU, which was the first of its kind, would serve as a ‘strong signal to the crime predators’ in Nigeria, adding that drug abuse in the country was becoming increasingly worrisome especially among youths.
He therefore, called on all well-meaning stakeholders to support NDLEA in its effort to curtail illicit production, importation, exportation, sale and trafficking of psychoactive substances.
Also, at the 31st meeting of Heads of National Drug Law Enforcement Agencies in Abuja late last year, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, asked the officials of the NDLEA to step up the fight against hard drug abuse and trafficking. Tinubu promised to provide the NDLEA the necessary support, motivation, and tools for the agency to fulfil its mandate.
All these are efforts by government and some agencies to help in fighting the war against hard drugs in the country.
What Nigerians think
Dr Grace Ugochi Dimanozie described drug abuse as the indiscriminate use of drugs for non medical purposes or as a mind or mood altering substance. She said a drug is abused when its use is not prescribed by a medical personnel; it is taken excessively or forbidden by the law or is socially unacceptable. “Drug abuse is worrisome. It has caused much harm and untimely in homes. The society is badly affected”.
She enumerated the role of parents to combat the menace. “Parents should seek professional treatment from psychiatric hospitals and rehabilitation centres for their children and wards on drugs. They should not abandon but accept and support a drug addict who is going or gone through rehabilitation. Family support is very important as it makes the drug abuser get back on track faster,” Dimanozie said.
She advised parents to be good role models for their children by not using or selling substances of abuse like alcohol, cigarettes, Indian hemp and cocaine. “It has been discovered that most children on drugs have close contact with them as a result of easy availability. Parents should monitor strictly the alcohol stored in their homes for preservatives in cooking and baking. Watch out for hawkers and joints where substances of abuse are sold around their homes. Parents should take the right measures to contact the appropriate authority to stop it,” she counselled.
She equally advised parents to observe and supervise their children to get to know them better and correct them when necessary. “They should know their moods, school timetable, homework and extracurricular activities to dictate truancy and other pointers to drug abuse. They should allow their children’s friends to visit them at home in order to know and assess their friends. To stop bad influence and peer pressure, parents should be their children’s close friends and confidants. They should be interested in what interests them like music, movie and friends. That is one way to win their trust. They should discuss with their children if any change is noticed in dressing, mood and school performance. Parents should watch out for some signs of drug abuse in their children such as bloodshot eyes or dilated pupils, avoidance of eye contact, demanding more privacy, locking doors, sneaking around, skipping class, declining grades, getting into trouble, missing money, valuables, or prescriptions, and acting uncharacteristically isolated. They are withdrawn or depressed, dizzy, acting silly, giggling for no reason and having a hard time remembering things. They should also watch out for paraphernalia like pipes, rolled paper, odour on clothes, breath and in the bedroom. They should watch out specifically for use of incense, perfume, and air freshener to hide smell of drugs. Clothing, poster music, jewellery and other things that promote drug abuse are also indicators of drug use.”
She asked parents to sensitise their children on the harmful and detrimental effect that drugs have on individuals when abused. “Parents should also train and counsel their children to use their spare time in reasonable and commendable activities such as reading, art, music, sports, farming, learning hand work etc. They should also inform their children of the adverse effects of keeping bad company,” the medical expert stated.
Dimanozie also said the society too, has a role to play. “It is a collective effort of the society to fight against drug abuse. From homes, schools, churches and government institutions, drug peddling and abuse should be strictly prohibited. Young ones monitored and guided. Adults should not indulge younger ones to drug use. Society should be loud in condemning sale and use of dangerous substances, even among the leaders and some wealthy people. Penalty should strictly apply to offenders of drug law. Government and individuals should provide adequate correctional facilities, professional counsellors and treatment to help drug addicts.”
Also weighing in on the issue was Eucharia Ekwueme, an ex-banker and community woman leader.
“It’s a complicated issue,” she noted. “Is it children that don’t listen to their parents, or the careless parents that throw their children out to the streets early to go and fend for themselves, and in the process they encounter all these vices? So many factors are responsible for this. Some of them go as far as secondary school. The principals and teachers are so relaxed. They don’t check them. They go to school very early to introduce these children to these drugs.”
She stated that all hands must be on deck to tackle the issue of drugs starting from the schools, principals, headmasters and headmistresses, and the teachers. “They should help to check their children, and the people who come into the school. At home, parents should also check their children and their wards. Monitor your children closely because the society is evil right now. Know the kind of friends they keep, their kind of outings, the things they do at their spare time, and the kind of things they watch. These days they say they are digital, so there is little parents can do. The bulk falls on the parents mostly to start early to monitor their children.
“I used to be an advocate of the boarding school, but now I don’t even know whether I still have the same view about boarding schools anymore because some of them pick these habits from there. It’s the same thing even in the universities.”
Ekwueme blamed the drug dealers who import them and urged the Customs to also help, instead of going to the market to chase people when it has already entered the market. She equally called on the government and all the relevant agencies to make sure that they check these things properly, and ensure it does not get into the market at all, so avoid the spread.
She proposed a death sentence for the importers of drugs. “I think that should be the final bus stop,” she noted.
The Founder of the World Evangelism Bible Church (WEBIC), Prophet Samson Ayorinde, in providing solution to the problem said that the first thing the government needs to do is to arrest the spirit behind it, and then start a process of education and enlightenment.
Hear him: “Our government’s spending on awareness of drug abuse, opium, Indian hemp, marijuana, etc is too low; They need more enlightenment. As the cost of this thing is increasing, they are inventing new things. There are cheaper ones in the market now, so the government really needs to clamp down on the manufacturers, as well as the distributors and the users, immediately, before this generation is totally affected.”
He blamed the scourge of unemployment for the indiscriminate abuse of drugs by the younger generation of Nigerians.
Dr Emman Usman Shehu, who also spoke, noted that from North to South and from East to West, Nigeria is being overwhelmed by a drug abuse epidemic. In his words, one of the obvious manifestations is the 100 per cent admission recorded by the Lagos Psychiatric Hospital.
Shehu who is the Director, International Institute of Journalism, also blamed it on the worsening socio-economic situation in the country, which he said has provided a fertile ground for this scourge, as people, especially within the age range of 15 to 64, look for ways of coming to terms with the challenges confronting them. “To appreciate the seriousness of the situation, those affected, according to a recent study, constitute 14 percent of the nation’s population. Apart from peer pressure which creates room for early introduction among teenagers, there are the additional problems of societal tolerance and unhealthy lifestyles, as well the menace of insecurity in various parts of the country. Unfortunately, some unscrupulous elements are exploiting the foregoing as a window of opportunity to make money through the manufacturing or sales of these highly addictive drugs. So some of these are imported through our porous borders or even produced within the country. Indeed drug trafficking within and outside the country is a major problem”.
Dr Shehu reminded parents the need to be more mindful about what their children are into and the kind of company that they keep. He noted that the drug laws in the country apparently need to be overhauled in tandem with this rising scourge, while the security issues especially at the borders are properly enhanced.
He proposed a concerted public awareness campaign which should be put in place, spearheaded by the National Orientation Agency and supported by all active stakeholders.
In her own reaction, former beauty queen, compère and soft skills expert, Ebele Enemchukwu, expressed a genuine concern for what the future holds. “Drug abuse has not only become more prevalent, but its use is beginning to lose the ‘stigma of abomination’ formerly attached to it. It is almost like a “cool” thing or an accessory that people now flaunt. What used to be heavily frowned at, appears to be gaining an attitude of indifference from the society now.”
According to Enemchukwu, what makes it more disturbing is the fact that the ‘enabling factors’ are increasing. “The economic situation in the country is worsening. Many of our youths are not meaningfully engaged. What you find is that they resort to that feel-good solution – drugs, as an escape, even if temporary, from reality or the worries of everyday life.”
Enemchukwu described family as an integral part of the society. “It is the most essential unit. You miss it at that level, then the society is already in trouble. The question then becomes, can we boast of high moral standards and discipline in the family today? You see, there lies the issue.
The fact that some of those who indulge in these acts are those that ordinarily ought to guide the straying ones back on track is a major cause for worry. How do you make sense of the scenario that something as ‘innocent’ as the cake at a party was laced with drugs? Mind you, I’m referring to a party at home. In other words, a parent paid a baker to include a drug substance as part of the recipe for the cake.
That should pose a major cause for worry for any normal mind, except such a person is already part of the statistics of that hospital report. There is a breakdown of the value system, and remedying it starts from us, the parents; from the family. We must all be more attentive to our children. Watch, observe, ask, confirm, monitor. Don’t spare the rod. All hands (and legs, in fact), must be on deck to stand any chance at curbing this rising challenge. We all have a responsibility here. If we win, we win together; we drop the ball at any point, it becomes our collective loss. We are a team, and my charge is that of collaboration. Do your good bit in your corner, I do mine on this side. Backed by intentionality, consistency and God’s special grace, we shall conquer this menace,” she concluded.
