Nigeria’s vanishing vision still has young people as its fulcrum, ,future, and faint hopes. It would simply be a profound aberration if a country of so many young people did not have them somehow at the center of its plan and existence. However, there is a problem. The problem is addiction. Drug addiction.
The last National Drug Use Survey of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) showed that 14.3 million Nigerians aged 15 to 64 had used illicit substances, excluding alcohol and tobacco, within a one-year period, with the youth population using more.
To numb their pain and anxiety in a country where life has become cheaper than kitchen salt, it appears that Nigerian youth are increasingly turning to illicit substances. This sojourn into the dreamy and dizzying realm of substance abuse is yet the clearest indicator that a country has lost its substance and balance. This loss, as profound as it is, is also a national confirmation of a tragedy of epic proportions.
All over Nigeria, hard drugs slip from one young hand to the other, clouding minds and hounding Nigerian families into a haze of interminable frustration and irritation. The drugs are as many and varied as their vendors and the states whose boundaries they cross.
Recognizing the direct and dirty link between substance abuse and violence, including terrorism, rape, armed robbery, and other violent crimes, there have been many efforts made to curb the menace, often with very little success.
The biggest challenge to ridding Nigeria of illicit drugs and freeing many young people from the tangled web of drug addiction is that those who peddle these drugs, those whose blood money comes from selling drugs, continue to roam free and push their business of death with not nearly enough done to rein them in.
The NDLEA continues to work hard to clean up Nigeria of drugs, but the problem is far more than a legal issue. It is profoundly a moral, ,social, and family issue, which explains why approaching the problem solely as a legal issue can effectively blunt the bludgeon of the law.
On a family level, families are largely failing to play their part in the war against illicit drugs and addiction. Many families, perhaps exhausted by the vagaries of life in Nigeria, have simply lost the will to check what their children are consuming and the courage to confront the terribly dangerous choices their children are making. As a result, many families are letting loose their drug-addled children on society.
On a moral level, drugs remain a massive problem because of the harm they bring to self and others. Apart from its uniquely destructive ability to impair choices, drugs bring users into situations where the choices and rights of others matter less and less. This sets the tone for some of the most grievous crimes committed in the society. Is it any wonder that terrorists and armed robbers all use drugs before setting off on their heinous and hideous operations?
Drug abuse and addiction are also profoundly social issues. They affect the society in myriad ways. Suddenly, the behavior of young people renowned for being temperate and mild-mannered goes off the cliff without explanation. Young people lose control of their lives and situations and soon their bodies as drug addiction morphs into destruction. Crimes increase; suicide rates climb as addiction takes a heavy toll on social and societal life.
As already stated, the bludgeon of the law alone is likely to be blunted by the insidious infection that drug addiction is. The battle to rid Nigeria of drugs and rip young people out of the claws of addiction must also take place on moral, family, and social levels.
While the law must go after the vast criminal networks that peddle the drugs destroying lives, families as well as religious and traditional leaders must play their part.
Addiction poses a grave threat to the society as a whole. No one is spared its destruction.
Ike Willie-Nwobu is a policy practitioner and social thinker. He can be reached at Ikewilly9@gmail.com.
