NAFDAC weeps over 4.3m Nigerians hooked on drugs, seeks early intervention

…Says secondary schools now grooming centres

Over 4.3m Nigerians are confirmed to be hooked on drugs. Many more are believed to be suffering unnoticed to officials.

To stem the tide, the National Agency For Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) wants to start the war against drugs abuse at secondary schools.

NAFDAC raised the alarm over the increase in drug abuse, especially among secondary school students in Nigeria, saying Nigerians are victims of the menace. The agency attributed the menace to low productivity among victims and increase in crime in the country.

Mojisola Adeyeye, Director-General of NAFDAC, made this known in a keynote address presented during the inauguration of the NAFDAC Consumer Safety Club tagged “Catch Them Young”, at Government Girls Secondary School, Rumukwuta Port Harcourt, an initiative designed to combat the spread of drug abuse among students in Secondary schools across the country.

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Adeyeye, represented by Oligbu Chukwuma, South-South Zonal Coordinator NAFDAC, charged the students to be committed to creating awareness on the dangers of drugs abuse, as ambassadors of the Agency to the school and the society.

The Agency also expressed concern over the increase in drugs in secondary schools across the country, a situation which according to him, accounts for poor academic performance and absenteeism. She identified some commonly abused substances to include tramadol, alcohol, codeine, and other control drugs.

The NAFDAC DG lamented over high rate of drug diversion (uses outside of the original medical purpose) and urged the public to ask questions where necessary concerning the use of prescribed drugs, saying substance abuse was undermining socio-economic development.

Also speaking, Onogwu Emmanuel, Rivers State Coordinator of NAFDAC, said the programme which was first inaugurated in the FTC Abuja stated that the programme was important because it affects a critical segment of the society. He urged youths to be supportive by taking the message to other young ones, and to assist .

Responding to the gesture, Ajaikaye Temitope, Senior Prefect of GGSS Rumukwuta, assured of the students’ readiness to take the message to all who were concerned. She also commended NAFDAC for the choice of GSS Rumukwuta as the centres for the programmes stressing that the students were ready to collaborate with the NAFDAC to ensure that the programme record the desired success.

Another SS3 Student of the School, Ndidiamaka Eze, said the inauguration was coming at the right time as it would serve as an important tool in the various social clubs in the school.

She assured the public of her preparedness to take the message beyond the walls of the classroom to her peers at home to increase the level of awareness and reduce the rising cases of drug abuse among youths and young adolescent.