‘Drug abuse, threat to Nigeria’s future’

The Initiative for Community Action Against Drug Abuse says a bleak future awaits Nigeria if urgent steps are not taken to tackle the high rise of drug abuse mostly by the youths.

The national coordinator of group, Samaila Musa, told newsmen in Abuja on Wednesday that a collective effort at the community level to tackle drug abuse was needed.

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He said the federal and states efforts were not yielding the desired effects because the community were not concerned or involved in addressing drug abuse.

He warned that a bleak future awaits Nigeria if urgent steps are not taking to tackle the high rise of drug abuse by Nigerians, mostly youths.

He said that part of the activities to get the communities involved is the official launched of ICAADA on the 28th March in Abuja in an event that would involve students at all levels, leaders and elders and drug law enforcement agencies and other relevant security outfits.

“Concerned by the fact that drug and substance abuse have become one of the major problems facing Northern Nigeria in particular with rapid proliferation among the youth and even house wives.

“The Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) initiated an Action that would complement government efforts towards checking this menace, around 2017 a committee of experts was inaugurated by professor Ango Abdullahi at Arewa house Kaduna with the responsibility of tracing the remote causes of drug abuse, assessing the extent of penetration, identifying manufacturer and supply roots and suggesting alternative ways of tackling the menace.

“Here in Abuja, most of the government offices you see, quite a lot of them are actually occupied by some of these people and some of them pick it up from school. I can tell you there was also a time one university in this city was running a drug test on daily basis on its students because they noticed a lot of them were into drug,” Musa said.

He also said that some government institutions actually open rehabilitation centers for some of their staff and this cadre of the people are mostly the children of the rich because these drugs are very expensive.

He said, “A lot of them when they get to the office put their head on the table and they are gone until closing hours and these are the leaders of tomorrow. That is why it is a national issue that require all hands to be on deck.”

According to him, ICAADA was initiated by the CNG, as an action that would complement government efforts towards checking the menace of drug use.