From Kenneth Udeh, Abuja
The Senate on Tuesday decried the rate at which “Mkpuru mmiri”, “Kurkura” and other harmful substances are consumed by Nigerians most especially the youths.
The Lawmakers expressed worry that the main drugs abused in Nigeria are mood altering or psycho active drugs, performance-enhancing drugs, dependency drugs as well as prescription drugs, whose side effects include; addiction, trauma, mental illness and oftentimes causes ill health, violence , death and involvement in criminal activities.
In order to address the worrisome trend the Senate asked the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency on the growing menace of drugs and narcotics abuse in the country.
If no concrete action is taken the Senators warned that violent crimes, accident related deaths and other unfortunate incidents will continue to occur due to the activities of persons under the influence of drugs.
The concerns of the Senate were sequel to a Motion expedited by Senator Hussaini Babangida Uba (Jigawa North West) during plenary session presided by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.
Amongst its resolutions the Senators implored the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NAFDAC), Federal Ministry of Health and other relevant government institutions to step up their efforts to curb the alarming consumption of Mkpuru mmiri and Kurkura which were prevalent in the Southern and Northern parts of the country.
The red chamber also directed its committee on NAFDAC, Drugs and Narcotics to liaise with relevant federal government agencies to convoke a National Summit on the state of drugs and narcotics abuse in the country.
Despite interventions by international, regional, federal and state bodies through laws, policies and technical support Hussaini lamented that there is no end in sight to the scourge.
Describing the situation as a rising “public health challenge” the Lawmaker forewarned that the consequences of drug abuse will continue to endanger our national development, public safety and family system if urgent action is not taken to strengthen existing legal, policy and institutional frameworks to face the challenges with all sense of responsibility.
Hussaini gave a statistical analysis of drug abuse in Nigeria;
“Nigeria is currently facing a rise in drug abuse which has reached an unprecedented level transforming from a mere transit route in the 1990s, into a country filled with drug abusers and drug traffickers all over its land space, while a population of 30 to 35 million spends approximately $15,000 and $30,000 annually on psychotropic drugs and alcoholic beverages, respectively.
“According to a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the European Union on drug use in Nigeria, about 14.3 million Nigerians between the ages of 15 and 64, are drug abusers;
“The report stated that 10.6 million addicts were cannabis users, 4.6 addicts used pharmaceutical opioids and 238 thousand drug abusers used amphetamines;
“The report further revealed that the prevalence of drug use per geopolitical zone as far back as 2017 shows that the North-West zone accounted for 12% (3,000,000), North-East zone 13.6% (2,090,000), NorthCentral zone 10.0% (1,500,000), South-West zone 22.4% (4,382,000), South-South zone16.6% (2,124,000), and the South-East zone 13.8% (1,550,000).
Lending his support to the motion, Senator Mohammed Tahir Monguno (Borno North) told the Senate hazardous drug consumption has become a threat to the nation’s good governance.
Monguno listed repercussions of deadly psychoactive substances; “These dangerous drugs make them commit atrocities due to its influence. No country can afford to relegate the future of its young ones to the background. It has also gotten to a social economic dimension in the sense that the productivity of Youths have been affected and we are losing our cultural and natural values.
The effects of the drug abuse in families and community security was brought to light by Senator Sani Musa (Niger East). According to him youths involved in drug intakes engage in robbery and other violent crimes in order to get money to procure more drugs.
“It is of national importance that we look at our cities and villages which have turned into networks for hard drugs. In Minna Today its sickening and sad that parents can no longer control their children due to the influence of these drugs.
“People can no longer walk freely because they can be attacked, injured and robbed and sometimes killed, ” the Senator Lamented.
The inclusion of drug education to the educational curriculum was stressed by the Deputy Senate President,Barau Jibrin. He emphasized that the dangerous substances are consumed by both the elites and the lower class including celebrities and politicians.
The need to empower the NDLEA to be more efficient and effective and the courts to speedily try drug suspects was suggested by Senator Ali Ndume (Borno South).
He said ; “Fortunately we have a leadership in the NDLEA that is capable but it is handicapped. The Senate committee is responsible for drugs and narcotics must sit with the NDLEA and know what they need. I have spoken to the Chairman of NDLEA and one of the problems we talked about is delay in the process of trying arrested persons.
In his contribution Senator Barinada Mpigi (Rivers Southeast) emphasised the need for the NDLEA to extend their tentacles to inner communities in order to curb the Menace and arrest those involved.
The Senator also accused security agents including those of the NDLEA of being consuming drug substances and abetting suspects while on duty.
Hear him; “These weeds are growing everywhere in our community, even Chemists are part of the problem. Most of them mix drugs with tramadol and give it to adults , especially women in our community to cure them from body pains.
“Security agencies who are supposed to checkmate these activities of drug users are also involved. You see them saying they want to get high. The issue is lack of proper administration and the NDLEA are not penetrating the communities to see what is happening.