Every June 26 is world drug day and this year the United Nation through its theme is encouraging the world to listen. According to Amaka Ekweremmadu who is the second in command of Onitsha unit of National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), “the world is not listening. Parents and caregiver need to listen to their children. Look out for none verbal cues from them because they say a lot. Parents must be their children’s best friends and talk more to them. If you don’t, television, internet and peer groups are talking more to them.”
The above remark set the pace for Onitsha world drug day, a weeklong activity of Come Alive Initiative in conjunction with Ime-Obi through the Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Alfred Nnaemeka Achebe. The aim is to pull resources and efforts together in ridding the community of the plague of drugs abuse and substance dependent.
Come Alive Initiative, in capturing the concern of the Ime-Obi tagged the campaign; without drugs, we can improve our lives, our community and our identity, in order to bring to the fore the threat that drugs and sundry substances abuse pose to the growth of the people.
However, in throwing his weight behind the project, the Obi of Onitsha was personally present to flag-off the occasion at his palace, the venue of the opening ceremony on June 26, 2018. The purpose is to draw the public’s attention to his readiness to join hands with other well meaning individuals and organizations to rid his kingdom of drugs dependant and abuse.
The event pulled together, stakeholders from the Nigerian Police, NDLEA, Medical field, Onitsha-North local government area, Obi-in-council, teachers, students and members of the public to discuss and proffer possible solution to the current challenge that is griping the soul of the nation – the youths.
In setting the mood of the programme, the convener, Victor Enwezor explained that the modus of the occasion will deviate from the known procedure of lectures delivery and on drug abuse but will instead toe the line of responses to the public’s questions and opinions in order to feel the pulse of the people.
He pointed that research has shown that the amount of resources parents and family members spend in managing a drug dependant person is equivalent to what can be used to cater for five persons or more in a family. He therefore ascribed the effect of drug abuse and dependant to community’s socio-economic growth as colossal damage.
He however, lamented on the situation where cannabis is shared with rizzlers and lighters at some funeral functions in Onitsha as a brazen display of lawlessness and height of drug abuse and enchantment that must be checked because the main victims as currently observed are the teenagers and youths.
Dr Charles Udeaya , a Psychiatric doctor from Enugu stressed that the current threat is no more about drugs people can afford but about what they can sell properties to buy because the consumption level increases according to usage and addiction is when drugs control victim’s appetite.
He went ahead to enumerate some of the drugs that are being abuse as cocaine, heroin, Marijuana, methamphetamine and etc but pointed that any drug that is not used by doctor’s prescription is also an abuse.
In concurrence, Ekweremmadu hinted that drug dependence in people is a brain disease which starts from touching little things you are not supposed. She pleaded that because children are inquisitive, parents and caregivers must endeavour to know what goes on in their world by listening and talking to them. No child should ever be left alone while in the pursuit of livelihood because if they are neglected, they turn out to plague both their parents and the society.
In the process a participant wanted to know why government should not ban these drugs that youths of today are abusing.
She responded that the issue of drug abuse has become so worrisome that most of the drugs being abused nowadays are no more the UN listed drugs but prescription drugs that have curative values and in other cases, the youths have gone ahead to create their own substances.
“How will government ban codeine that is needed to treat cough, Tramadol that relieves acute pain, solvents that are used to patch tubes, gums, lizard poo, lacassera, soakaway and pawpaw leaves,” she queried.
In sorting out some grey areas as it concerns the level of information that should be available to the youths of today, Chief Prof. N. Okafo questioned how to reconcile the fact that while advising youths on abstinence on one hand, they read that Canabis is legalized in certain western country.
CSP Bawa Sale, representing the Anambra State Commissioner of police answered that in as much as we cannot query what other nations do because of culture differences, our aim must be to control what happens here.
“We must let them know that such things are not allowed here,” he ordered.
He further lamented the situation where energetic residents of Onitsha are seen between the hours of 1:00pm and 3:30pm at beer parlours, “these are people that should be in the markets and offices doing something at that time but they are drinking. That is the time that police patrols and see them,” he said.
A participant remarked that the arm forces should be seen as the champion of drug control but to her observation, she asked why Marijuana is used to cook meals for trainees while in training camps of different arm forces in Nigeria. She reported that it is claimed to make them strong, agile and enhance their training performances and by such act some get hooked on it.
Bawa accepted that such practices are wrong and explained that officers who use drugs make wrong judgments. There to sanitize the system, there is close monitoring mechanism on ground where erring officers are made to face departmental disciplinary committees.
Moreover, Chike Ikemefuna, while sharing the experience of drug dependant to the youths, explained that drug is about falsehood because the feeling of highness associated with it is not real and the effect is that it ends in crime and other vices.
Participants also raised concern on curbing the influx of dangerous drugs into the country and asked of how the Nigerian Police and NDLEA could help in this aspect as a way forward.
Ekweremadu explained that in as much as it is the responsibility of NDLEA and other law enforcement agencies to control harmful drugs, the society has bigger role to play in winning the war. They must be ready to provide relevant information and disassociate with the mentality of get rich quick.
Bawa also remarked that the traditional rulers too must be involved in the war against drugs by not honouring criminals and drug barons with chieftaincy titles.
Ekweremmadu concluded that apart from drug seizure, arrest of peddlers, NDLEA also carry out remands for the rehabilitation of drug dependants and therefore call on the public to send victims to them for assistance.
In the same vein, Come Alive Initiative also requests the public to send victims that needs help to them for counseling and rehabilitation.
Also present at the occasion was the Onowu of Onitsha, Chief Ononye, Ajie, Chief Engr. B.O Adibuah, Ogene Onira, Chief Prof. N. Okafo, Osuma Afa, Chief Okey Chukwudebe, Mmadubuilo Michael, Substance Abuse Therapist.More photos below.
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