Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouq, has appealed for media support in combating drug abuse in Nigeria.
She made the appeal Tuesday in Abuja during a national awareness on drugs and substance abuse orientation organised for media practitioners, civil society organisations and students.
She said: “The role and importance of media as a viable tool for informing and educating people across groups and demographics, especially on drugs and substance abuse in our society, cannot be over emphasized.
“As you are aware, substance abuse is increasing at an alarming rate, causing serious threats to every nation, by deteriorating health, increasing crimes, hampering productivity, destroying relationships, eroding social and moral values and impeding the overall progress of societies. It may also interest you to know that young people are becoming the largest hostage of the threat of substance abuse and their vulnerability is increasing gradually in our society.
“Hence, the use of mass media campaigns to reduce health and related social problems in society gained momentum with an initial focus on improving cardiovascular health. The positive results obtained by the first campaigns led to their further use in areas as diverse as HIV/AIDS prevention, From the 1970s on, media campaigns were increasingly used in the prevention of drugs and illicit substance abuse.
“The potential of mass media campaigns lies in their ability to propagate simple and focused messages to large audiences repeatedly, over time, at a low cost per capita. It is also assumed that they are able to reach a large and heterogeneous proportion of the population.
“The continuous abuse of drugs has led to a situation of drug addiction and criminality while the addict continues to developing a bondage to the drugs, meanwhile the effects of drug abuse is detrimental not only to the individual but to the society as a whole.
“The Federal Ministry Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development saddled with a mandate to effectively coordinate National and International Humanitarian interventions, national emergencies and disasters, as they affect person of concern as well as to formulate and implement humanitarian and social policies, initiated several programmes and activities towards improving living standards of the target group to ensure a society devoid of drugs abuse.”
