Marwa: Why drug test for corps members, others is important

From Godwin Tsa, Abuja

Brigadier General Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd), Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), has explained that drug integrity tests for National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members, prospective couples, and others aim to curb substance abuse and enable early treatment, not to punish.

Speaking on Wednesday during a courtesy visit by NYSC Director General Brigadier General Olakunle Oluseye Nafiu at NDLEA headquarters in Abuja, Marwa stated: “The drug scourge has continued to devastate our kids, families, and communities everywhere; there’s nowhere you go in the country that you don’t have a drug abuse problem. One in seven Nigerians between the ages of 15 and 64 use drugs.”

Marwa praised NYSC as a “national treasure” and proposed collaboration, including drug tests at orientation camps, saying, “It’s a major drug demand reduction effort. In the same way, we said, If you are getting married, both the bride and the groom should bring a drug-free certificate.”

He spoke on early detection to prevent addiction, noting, “This is because it is always better to detect drug use early before it gets to addiction, which eventually could get to psychiatric problems, and it becomes a danger to the user and society.”

He suggested posting corps members trained in guidance, counselling, psychology, nursing, or psychiatry to the NDLEA’s Counselling and Treatment Centres for their primary assignment. Nafiu called the drug test proposal “fantastic” and committed to reviewing it, promising to assign qualified corps members to NDLEA centres. He acknowledged the existing NDLEA-NYSC partnership, aiming to strengthen it further.