The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and the Federal Ministry of Education have reached agreement to introduce compulsory drug integrity tests for students of tertiary institutions and review the current secondary school curriculum to include robust drug education.
This pivotal collaboration was forged during a meeting in Abuja, Wednesday, between the NDLEA Chairman/Chief Executive, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd), and the Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Olatunji Alausa.
Marwa commended Alausa’s proactive approach, emphasising the devastating impact of substance abuse on Nigeria’s youth population.
“The fight against illicit drugs is a fight for the souls of our children,” Marwa stated, highlighting how drug use exacerbates criminal activities like Boko Haram, terrorism, and banditry. “Without drugs, they wouldn’t be able to do what they are doing, because they wouldn’t do all these criminal activities in their right senses,” he said.
Marwa detailed the NDLEA’s aggressive law enforcement efforts, supported by President Bola Tinubu’s administration saying: “Within the last two years, we have made arrest of 40,887 criminal elements, gotten 8,682 convicted, and seized 5,507 metric tons of illicit drugs,” he stated.
He added that from January last year, over one billion pills of opioids, primarily tramadol, worth more than N1 trillion, have been seized.
The NDLEA chairman also noted President Tinubu’s support in building seven new rehabilitation centers, in addition to the existing 30, with one model rehab center approved for each geo-political zone.
Marwa proposed three critical areas for collaboration to effectively combat substance abuse among Nigerian youth:
He called for an updated curriculum that addresses the evolving complexity of drugs and the emergence of new psychoactive substances and introduction of Stand-Alone Drug Abuse Prevention Programmes.
Beyond the curriculum, Marwa suggested dedicated programs, lectures, competitions, and parental involvement in secondary schools adoption of Drug Testing Policy in Tertiary Institutions. Marwa advocated for a policy to maintain drug-free campuses, proposing tests for new students, those returning from vacations, and random tests. He clarified that consequences would not necessarily mean rustication, aiming instead to deter drug use.
In response, Minister Alausa lauded Marwa’s steadfastness and commitment to national service, recognising the drug scourge as a “huge problem that must be tackled headlong.