Kano state governor Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has called on youth not to underestimate the consequences of drug abuse, addiction and trafficking, stressing the need for measures to provide help users give up addiction.
He also stressed the need for fashioning out anti-drug initiatives that involved aggressive public education, more define laws and fostering greater cooperation in countering the menace.
In his message on the International Day Against Drug Abuse, the governor, via a statement issued by the commissioner for information, Malam Muhammad Garba, noted that the theme of this year’s observance, “Better Knowledge for Better Care,” was apt “considering that the public not fully aware of the social implication of drug abuse.”
He urged aggressive” conventional and social media campaign against drug abuse in order to bring to fore the impact of the threat that is endangering not only lives, but the economies of some countries.”
The governor, however, said since inception, the administration had instituted programmes “aimed at curtailing abuse of drugs and use of hard drugs which include setting up and streamlining the activities of the state task force on drug abuse which intercepted and destroyed illicit drugs worth over N1 billion.”
Other initiatives were plans to “establish the state drug administration agency to battle addiction, introduction of compulsory drug test for political appointees, civil servants and students seeking admission into the tertiary institutions.”
He commended the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for choosing Kano to host its North-west zonal office and appointment of the special adviser to the governor on Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs), Habeeb Yahaya Hotoro, as its coordinating focal person.