By Vivian Onyebukwa
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Ogun State Command, on March 27, 2023, conducted its first-quarter War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) webinar, in commemoration of this year’s International Women’s Day event, with the title “Women as change catalysts in the drug response in Nigeria.”
The state commander of narcotics, Ibiba Odili, stressed the need for this global event to go beyond just the celebration and provoke conversations on issues that will likely hinder women in accessing opportunities and investments required in achieving the desired principles of equity and inclusion that the International Women’s Day promotes.
She explained that the event aimed at exploring the dynamics of the drug abuse problem, which indicates that women, besides been caregivers, are also getting more involved in drug use.
The commander explained that the programme could not have come at a better time than now, as, according to the National Drug Use Survey, 2018, one out of every four drug users is a woman.
The statistics, she said, portends a threat to the overall wellbeing of families and communities since women play a huge role in determining the quality of individuals who will end up as contributors to all levels of development.
Odili stated that multiple studies have also revealed that, due to biological and physiological differences, women who abuse drugs are more sensitive to the consumption of drugs, more prone to long-term effects and are quicker to develop drug dependence.
“There are more experiences of stigmatization among women who abuse drugs than their male counterparts, which may act as obstacles to seeking, entering and remaining in treatment,” Odili added.
The guest speaker, Shiv Kumar, a prominent Indian social development agent and the founder of the Catalyst Group, a leading development consultancy that provides innovative solutions to social, economic and environmental issues, explained that drug abuse affects women on three layers.
“It is when their intimate partners or family members are involved in drug abuse, when they live in communities where a large proportion of the people are consuming or trading in drugs. This might expose them to unsafe and violent living experiences, and, finally, when they are consumers of drugs,” Kumar said.
He explained that, on many occasions, women were not self-initiated to drugs but usually got introduced by an intimate partner.
To ensure that women are able to act as catalysts in drug responses in Nigeria, Kumar recognised the need for the critical mass of women who are not abusing drugs to provide meaningful support to those abusing drugs.
He also stressed the need for communities and other stakeholders to deliberately build targeted capacity required for women to embark on the role of catalysts in resolving and preventing drug abuse and trafficking.
He emphasised the need for men to intentionally play complementary roles to enable families and communities harness and benefit from the deep potential women possess, urging all stakeholders to design and implement gender-specific interventions to ensure that the peculiarities of women are not ignored, since this would create a gender gap and compromise the entire drug abuse response architecture.
Deputy commander in charge of drug demand reduction, Segun Ayodele, who participated in the webinar, proposed the theory of knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP), where drug abuse awareness should be made part of the school curriculum, instead of saddling women with the burden: “The problem on women would be too much if not taken care of at school.”
Ekwu Eucharia advised women to be role models, as the days of old. She said: “Women have a lot to be done. They should not teach their children how to drink by drinking themselves. Let’s prepare the women to prepare their children before going to school.”
Anthony Akinlawon also expressed worries over women who sell drugs to teenagers: “I have had cause to accuse them at different times for making money through drugs, but my efforts have not yielded any positive result. These women are damaging the future of the youths”.
Akinlawon advised NDLEA to work on the supply chain too.
Aminu Umar stressed the importance of girl child education and the need to create more awareness against the use of drugs by making it part of the school curriculum. This, according to him, will enable women to have knowledge of drugs so as to be able to take care of their children when they get married.
“Educate a woman, you educate a whole nation. This is a very important perspective to it,” he said.
Olude Adewale advocated different ways to diseminate the information, including the use of local languages.