Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee for the
Elimination of Drug Abuse, Buba Marwa has said of Nigeria’s estimated
population of about 180 million, there are 15 million drug addicts.
Marwa, who was former military governor of Lagos State,
referred to the development as alarming.
He said the global average rating of drug use and abuse is five per
cent, noting that “In Nigeria, we are at 15 per cent.”
He made this claim on Wednesday, in Kaduna, in the company
of members of his committee, when he addressed officers and men of Katsina
Command of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
“We have an emergency situation before us regarding the
issue of drugs abuse in Nigeria,” he said, adding that the Nigerian government
decided to raise the committee to proffer recommendations and steps to be taken
to resolve the issue of drug abuse in the country,
Marwa had earlier visited the Katsina Government House,
where he told Governor Aminu Bello Masari that the committee commenced work
last December.
“We started our work since December and finished the plenary
and now we are visiting states across the country.
“On the whole, we are facing the supply side of drugs, in
terms of cutting the supply because you must have drugs first before the use.
Government agencies involved need to be strengthened to be able to carry out
their functions effectively, and the demand side appears to be more difficult
to handle.
“We also need to take the preventive measures to ensure that
those who do not take the drugs remain so. We have to interface with esteemed
leaders across the country. We feel that there ought to be committees on drug
abuse, right from the federal to the local governments and across the
communities.
“We do not know that the causes of drug abuse include, but
it’s not limited to poverty, joblessness and idleness which translate to
looking for jobs. Rehabilitation and counselling centres are few. We will
interface with religious organisations and traditional leaders and also examine
the Almajiri situation and embellish with western education. The Almajiris, in
the course of their training, do other things that are not good for them.”
