…test for varsity students
Compulsory drug integrity test for students of tertiary institutions and the review of current secondary school curriculum to include drug education are part of agreements reached between the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency and the Federal Ministry of Education.
Mr. Femi Babafemi, the spokesman of the anti-narcotic agency, disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday.
He said the agreement was reached when the NDLEA Chairman, Brig Gen Mohamed Buba Marwa led a delegation of his management team to a meeting with the Hon Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Olatunji Alausa in Abuja.
Marwa had during the meeting commended the minister for his proactive approach to his job while highlighting the devastating effect of substance abuse on the country’s youthful population.
He noted that the fight against illicit drugs is a fight for the souls of the Nigerian youth.
“The purpose of this visit is to seek collaboration with this esteemed ministry in our collective efforts towards drug control in Nigeria. Our focus basically will be on schools and educational institutions. There are millions of our children that are under the supervision of this ministry, and it’s very critical. The drug scourge, as we all know, is very high in Nigeria
“So, we’re actually fighting for the souls of our children. Now, we also know that the drug use is exacerbating criminal activities. That is, the Boko Haram, the terrorism, banditry, and so on.
“We know that 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. So, in our own way, we are contributing to the fight against insecurity in the country. Now, through law enforcement action, we have continued to deal mortal blows to the drug cartels. We know that through the seizures, arrests, convictions, and assets forfeiture, we’re doing our best.
“Supported by President Bola Tinubu, 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. In fact, from January last year to the present, opioids, that’s tramadol mostly, that we have seized, are in excess of one billion pills, which is worth more than N1 trillion.”
He listed three key areas he will want the Ministry and NDLEA to collaborate to effectively check the menace of substance abuse among Nigerian youths.
According to him: “The first suggestion we have is for a review of the drug education curriculum in secondary schools. Even though we’re told of the existence of this in the past but because of the complexity of drugs, the dynamism of it, and the new psychoactive substances that have come to play, we feel that it is time to consider a review of this drug education curriculum.
“Another area we were thinking of suggesting is to introduce stand-alone drug abuse prevention programmes in schools, secondary schools. Not the curriculum this time, but programmes that stand on their own, lectures, competitions, and involving the parents, and so on. And then the third area we were thinking is to adopt a drug testing policy in tertiary institutions, because we want a policy to keep our campuses clean.
“Several vice chancellors have come on their own to seek both our guidance and participation in conducting drug test for their students. So, what we are suggesting now is drug tests for new students, for students returning from vacations, and random tests. This will make the children to avoid taking drugs, knowing fully well that if they do and they are found out, there will be consequences. And the consequences do not necessarily mean rustication.”
In his response, the Minister commended Marwa for his steadfastness and commitment to the service of Nigeria.
“Thank you for your service to Lagos. And beyond that, General Buba Marwa, has committed his life to serve this country. Since I know him 30 years ago, he’s still serving the country. And you could see the passion in the way that he laid out the problems in the country and what he wanted us to do. And as he was talking, I made note and it was as if I had seen his prepared comments. Thank you so much for making this visit.”
He noted that the drug scourge is a huge problem that must be tackled headlong.
“When the youths get into drugs, they won’t go to school and even when they go to school, they are not getting functional education. And at the end of the day, what happens? Their level of critical thinking is lower. Their ability to make informed decisions in the later part of their life becomes significantly reduced. So, they become unemployable. And what happens? You now have that vicious cycle. They’re not functional. They’re not useful to themselves. All they do is resort to criminality. Once you use drugs, you’re likely to have a dysfunctional family. So, it’s a huge menace that we need to tackle, and tackle very quickly.”