When NDLEA Chairman/Chief Executive Brig Gen Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd.) led a delegation of his management team to a meeting with the Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Olatunji Alausa, in Abuja on Wednesday, the two organizations reached agreements that include mandatory drug integrity testing for students attending tertiary institutions and a review of the current secondary school curriculum to include drug education.
During the discussion, Marwa highlighted the terrible impact of substance misuse on the nation’s children and praised the minister for taking a proactive approach to his work.
According to him, the battle against illegal drugs is a battle for the souls of young Nigerians.
Seeking cooperation with this prestigious ministry in our joint endeavors to combat drug use in Nigeria is the aim of our visit. In essence, we shall be concentrating on educational institutions and schools.
It is extremely important that this ministry is in charge of the millions of our youngsters.
As everyone is aware, Nigeria has a severe drug problem. In really, we are battling for our children’s souls. We now know that drug use is making criminal activity worse.
Banditry, terrorism, Boko Haram, and so forth. “We know that without drugs, they would not be able to do what they are doing, because they would not do all these criminal activities in their right senses,” the statement reads.
Therefore, we are helping to combat insecurity in the nation in our own small manner. We have now continued to inflict the drug cartels fatal blows through law enforcement operations.
We are certain that we are doing everything we can through the seizures, arrests, convictions, and forfeiture of assets.
With President Bola Tinubu’s help, we have arrested 40,887 criminal elements in the past two years, found 8,682 guilty, and collected 5,507 metric tons of illegal substances.
The amount of opioids, primarily tramadol, that we have confiscated since January of last year has exceeded one billion pills, valued at almost N1 trillion.
“President Tinubu has also approved the construction of one model rehab center in each of the country’s geopolitical zones,” Marwa said, adding that the president is also supporting the agency to build seven rehabilitation centers in addition to the current 30 centers in NDLEA commands nationwide.
In order to effectively combat the threat of substance misuse among Nigerian youth, he outlined three main areas in which he would like the Ministry and NDLEA to work together.
“The first recommendation we have is to review the secondary school drug education curriculum,” he said.
Although this has been mentioned in the past, we believe it is necessary to reassess the drug education curriculum due to the complexity, dynamic nature, and new psychoactive substances that have entered the market.
“Introducing independent drug usage prevention programs in secondary schools is another area we were considering proposing.
Not the curriculum this time, but self-contained programs, lectures, contests, parent involvement, and so forth.
at order to maintain the cleanliness of our campuses, the third issue we considered was implementing a drug testing program at postsecondary educational institutions.
On their own, a number of vice chancellors have approached us to ask for our advice and to participate in administering drug tests to their students.
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Therefore, we are now proposing random tests, drug tests for new students, and drug tests for students returning from vacation.
As a result, the kids will refrain from using drugs, well aware that there will be repercussions if they are caught using them.
Furthermore, rustication is not always the result of the consequences. The minister responded by praising Marwa for his unwavering dedication to serving Nigeria.
“I appreciate you serving Lagos. Furthermore, General Buba Marwa has dedicated his life to serving this nation. He is still serving the country, as I have known him for thirty years.
And it was evident how passionately he outlined the nation’s issues and what he wanted us to accomplish. I took notes while he was speaking, and it seemed as though I had seen his prepared remarks beforehand. I sincerely appreciate you coming to visit.
He pointed out that the drug epidemic is a serious issue that has to be addressed immediately.
“Young people who use drugs refuse to attend school, and even when they do, they do not receive a useful education.
And what happens at the end of the day? They are less capable of critical thought. Later in age, their capacity to make wise decisions is severely diminished. They thereby lose their employability. And what takes place? You’re in that vicious loop now. They don’t work. They don’t benefit themselves.
They just turn to criminal activity. Your family is likely to be dysfunctional if you start using drugs. Therefore, we must address this serious threat as soon as possible.
