At street corners, in abandoned and uncompleted buildings, near pubs or eateries and fringes of social gatherings, under the bridges, you see them pacing around aimlessly. They have weird faces, hairs unkempt, bodies caked with dirt, having been starved of water due to lack of water for days, and weeks. Many of them look emaciated and constantly hungry; they talk with difficulty or funny ascent, and incoherently. Often they engage in some mild street fights. Some lean on electric poles or walls to have balance; others stagger as they walk around or stand akimbo. Even in hot weather conditions, some wear warm clothing. Welcome to the world of Nigerian drug addicts; especially the men. Most of them are between the ages of late teens and early thirties.
On the streets of Lagos you see so many of them. From Omuwo-Odofin, to Alimosho and Ketu-Mile 12 on the mainland to Lekki Phase1 to Ogombo to Lagos Island and Ibeju-Lekki on the island, you will find them in their thousands. Per square kilometre, it would appear that the more affluent Lekki Phase1 axis inhabits the highest number of people using, rather abusing drugs in Lagos.
You would be mistaken to think that this malady is a Lagos affair. In Ibadan, Kano, Kaduna, Port Harcourt, Uyo, everywhere, the urban youth, rather, millions of our male youths in urban centres have taken to drug abuse as a lifestyle. Which is not to say that the female youths are immune to this lifestyle. In Lagos and majorly in the north, increasing number of women are involved in illicit drug use. For the Lagos ‘big’ girls, the allure is to have easy access to the deep pocket guys while the main driver for the women in the north is frustration. Many of the women on drugs are divorces; they just don’t seem to have something to hold onto. So they succumb to the temptation of being on drugs.
Drug abuse is so rampant in Kano so much so that even the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) recently advocated that there should be compulsory drug tests for intending couples. This is very concerning. A couple of years back, a former classmate of mine who resides in Kano reached out to me to know how the organization I work for could be of assistance to a nonprofit organization she was affiliated to. She said the organization was targeting women who had been involved in drug abuse in the city. Unfortunately, successive governments would rather pretend that there is no problem in this regard.
Until the 1990s, marijuana was perhaps the only major illicit drug taken by young people. Now you cannot keep up with the number of drugs that are being abused in Nigeria. Not even the General Buba Marwa-led NDLEA is able to track them. Lest I forget, kudos to NDLEA under the able leadership of Marwa. Even though the war to stem the widespread abuse of drugs appears to have been lost, one cannot but acknowledge the tremendous work done by the agency since the former military governor of Borno, and later Lagos States was appointed to the position by the former President Mohammadu Buhari. If Marwa had come into the scene some twenty or so years ago, perhaps the story would have been different today.
Talking about the drugs being abused by Nigerians, marijuana is still the most rampant because it is easily grown as a vegetable in most states in the south, and also easily affordable. I do not know how they do it; if at 10 pm a marijuana addict gets into a community he or she had never been to before, he or she will purchase a wrap of the drug before midnight! I guess the same goes for other drugs. Loud, including Canadian loud is another drug widely used in the Lekki axis of Lagos. Cocaine, tramadol, codeine and heroin are more expensive and are used, rather abused by the affluent few.
Drugs abused are in three different categories: stimulants, sedatives and narcotics. My focus is on narcotics, which are drugs or other substances that affect mood or behaviour, and are consumed for non-medical purposes and are often gotten illegally (I’m no expert here, so may not be able to make right differentiations!).
Many of our young people and the not so young are with mental health issues. Western culture and the desire to belong are major factors. Some due to frustrations and lack have been entrapped by the abuse of drugs. The entertainment industry is not helping matters. Many circular musicians with millions of followers use drugs. Because their fans see them as role models, they copy not only their songs and music but also their drug filled lifestyles. With such huge influence, it makes it nearly impossible to stem the tide of drug abuse in the society.
In June this year something strange happened in Abuja. As is now the norm in Nigeria, many, not even the government paid much attention to it. In the highbrow Sun City Estate in the Federal Capital Territory, tens, perhaps hundreds of youths gathered to have a drug party which they creatively tagged go-hard-or-go-home party. All kinds of drugs were freely used. As they would say, it was so loud that NDLEA arrested 60 of the party goers. You can imagine just what happened at the party. This was not an isolated case.
Every week our newspapers are filled with stories of people arrested for drug trafficking, abuse or seizures of hard drugs. Here are just a few of the headlines in July alone that I managed to picked: “We seized 7,149 kg of illicit drugs in Nasarawa within one year”- NDLEA; “NDLEA seizes US, UK, Europe-bound cocaine, opioids in Lagos”; “NDLEA intercepts N9.8 billion worth of codeine shipments from India”; and NDLEA arraigns senior immigration official, 3 others”; “Customs seizes N11 billion worth of illicit drugs in Rivers”; “task force arrests 124 drug suspects in Lagos black spot raid”; “Navy hands over 85 bags of cannabis sativa to NDLEA”; and the one I referenced earlier about drug tests for prospective couples.
The easiest way to deal with drug abuse is not to use it in the first place. The society, the government, parents and guardians, teachers, role models, religious groups and nonprofits have got their jobs cut out for them. Education and enlightenment are key to preventing young ones from being hooked on drugs.
The old saying that prevention is better than cure is true. It is even cheaper too! There is this drug addict my evangelism group encountered not far from where I live. Let’s call him Alex! After our first encounter, we agreed to see if we could be of help to Alex. We reached out to a faith based organization that helps in rehabilitation of such addicts. We were told two minimum steps that must be taken: one was a determination by him to get out of the situation he was in, and the second was that he must leave the environment that feeds his drug use. Of course, he was homeless; and where to live was an immediate priority. The organization gave us an estimate of what it would cost to put him in their rehab facilities either on the island or mainland Lagos. That was when I realized that rehabilitating a drug addict is not a tea party; far more expensive than sending someone to a private university in Nigeria. I decided to follow up on Alex to see if he would flow with the first step…determination to end the lifestyle. He had become more incoherent; he couldn’t even remember his mother’s phone number! I did not see that will power, and people in the neighborhood had warned me it was a lost case! I have been to that neighborhood (I even took a walk to the area this morning) several times in the recent past and I have not been seeing Alex again. What has become of him, I cannot say.
It is clear we are losing a good number of our youth to drugs; and this is not a fight we should leave for government only. At any rate, our governments have not been able to deal with any societal problems in the country! In Nigeria we redefine inversely what governance stands for.
SHORT TAKE
#ENDBADGOVERNANCE PROTESTS
Whether it holds or not (as I write, peaceful protests are going on across many urban locations in the country…and is widely successful on Day One. In my neighborhood, there are no protests but businesses are closed; the streets deserted, mine turned into a football street by the youth!), we owe it a special duty to thank those who birthed the idea of protesting against bad governance in Nigeria. The idea of the protest has again exposed how confused we are as a nation.
Secondly, it highlights what we already know: that the core of Nigeria’s problem is lack of LEADERSHIP. The late Professor Chinua Achebe shouted it on the rooftop! In the last two weeks, our President has informed us loud and clear that he is not the man to do the job. He runs a palliative economy with increased taxes, less services; and policy summersaults. Try as he does, things are going to get worse before they get better, perhaps under another President. Even his prefect, the Senate President, speaks to the issues as a kindergartener! To think that we can pull off so much resources to fight against peaceful protests against bad governance within a short time means that our rulers have no desire to solve national problems. Nigerians, cry!
Akaninyene Esiere is a former journalist!
