Today is International Day against Drugs Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, popularly known as The Drug Day. It is a day the world, both as nations and international bodies has set aside to emphasis the dangers of drugs abuse and to reassess and recommit itself to the war against drugs abuse and illicit trafficking.
For long, researches have shown that there is a positive relation between drugs abuse and crime on the one hand and the general moral destruction of society on the other hand. Thus, countries like the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, the US, etc., who have had first-hand experiences of the destructive impacts of drugs on society take the Drug Day very serious and use it to sensitize their populations on the harm of drug abuse.
Unfortunately, this is not the case in Nigeria. In fact many Nigerians, even the educated ones, are barely aware that there is anything like the Drug Day. Few who are aware of it are perhaps those who heard about it over the radio, read of it on papers or who have to announce it or write about it because the work in media companies. Why is the Nigerian government so unconcerned about the harmful effect of drugs abuse? Does this imply that Nigerians do not abuse drugs or that there are no drug related crimes in Nigeria?
Drug Abuse in Nigeria
Any person who lives in Nigeria and who like my humble self is in constant communion with young people because of the nature of his profession will no doubt agree that a major problem facing Nigeria today is drug abuse among young people. Recently, I packed into an area in Enugu populated by students. I was alarmed at the sheer number of students harming themselves with drugs. These students would congregate in a certain street, early very morning and late in the evening to smoke and drink. Some of them have become so addicted to these substances that they no longer go to school. They scavenge and roam the streets, looking for weeds to smoke and food to eat. To see very young and promising Nigerians burn up their lives this way bleeds the heart and one wonders what the government of Enugu state is doing about this and why the Agency for Drugs and Law Enforcement has not intervened?
The Genesis of Drug Abuse among Young People in Nigeria
Generally, research indicates that drug abuse among young Nigerians coincides with the origin of cultism in Nigerian tertiary institutions. This is traced to the activities of some young undergraduates of the then University College Ibadan. This group of people all of whom in later years became prominent citizens included Wole Soyinka now retired professor and Noble Prize winner, Pius Oleghe, Ralph Opara, Aig lmoukluede Nat Oyelola and Professor Olumuyiwa Awe.
These people founded an association called the Pirates Confraternity. Their mission, as they stated was to abolish convention, revive the soul of the university and end tribalism and elitism. However, with time, their noble objectives were hijacked by our society’s delinquent adults, especially the politicians who started using this cult groups for intimidations and political purposes. Secret cultism now has become a way of unlashing terror on student groups and society at large. The cultists kill, maim and instil fear on several campus communities. In the book titled, “This present Darkness: A History of Nigerian Organised Crime”. Professor Stephen Ellis traced the evolution of these cults and how they have harmed Nigeria’s young population. According to him, the first rival to the Pirates was the Eiye group founded in 1965, which in 1969 instituted the supreme Eiye Confraternity (National Association of Air Lords). During the 1970s, there was a multiplication of student confraternities that had direct genealogical connection to the Pirates.
In 1972 an internal disagreement led to a dissident group leaving or being expelled from the Pirates and founding a new confraternity at the University of Ibadan, known as the Buccaneers of the National Association of Sea Lords. The Buccaneers claimed to have ideological differences with the Pirates, whom they accused of elitism. Over the years, with the rapid increase in the number of students in Nigerian universities, there has been further splits. Among new cults were the Vikings, Red Beret, Mafia and dozens of others. Colleges in the Niger Delta region seem to have been particularly fertile ground for new campus groups, such as the Klansmen Confraternity of Calabar and the Supreme Vikings Confraternity, formed in 1984 at the University of Port Harcourt.
Holding their meetings at night and in secret, some of the new groups became associated with violent attacks on University campuses. Their behaviour moved far beyond the rather light hearted mock sinister that had been the original style of the Pirates. One ex-member of a student group recalled initiation as consisting of three weeks of what he called “rigorous and heart breaking activities whose purpose was to toughen the heart of the otherwise innocent looking boy”, similar to military basic training or initiation into one of the traditional secret society that were so important in many parts of Nigeria. Specifically, charms (juju) and hard drugs were freely employed to strengthen and toughen the young initiates. Under the influence of these hard drugs, cultists have been wreaking havoc and committing many untold crimes across the length and breadth of the country. Many lives have been lost as well, including the lives of innocent people. So worrying did campus violence become that the leadership of the Pirates announced its intention to withdraw from University campuses entirely and to re-launch the group as an adult society called the National Association of Seadogs. Nevertheless, student Pirates continued to operate on Nigerian campuses in disregard of the National leadership.
Causes and Cures for Cultism and Drug abuses among Nigerian Youths
A major cause of cultism and drug abuse among Nigerian youths is that many parents have abandoned their responsibilities to their children. These parents are too busy attending to economic matters that their children grow up without receiving the necessary moral education from their parents who as decreed by God are their first contacts with humanity. Such circumstances make them susceptible to peers pressure. This way they pick up anti-social habits. By the time the parents realise their error it is often too late.
Another cause of the prevalence of cultism and drugs abuse among Nigeria youth is the attitude of Nigerian government, especially the security agents. The normal attitude is to arrest any youth found with hard drugs, make the family pay to get the person released. The government has not developed an effective way of dealing with some of the processes like cultism, etc. that breeds drugs addition and the process of rehabilitation for those who are already addicted.
In addition, many of the teachers/lecturers who are some of the closest contacts to the students and who ordinarily should influence the students positively are not good role models. Some of these teachers abuse drugs themselves, those who don’t abuse drugs, led the kind of lives that encourage drugs abuse among students.
Consequently, solving the problem drugs abuse among Nigeria youth must be multi-faceted. All stakeholders must be involved. Parents especially should know that what makes one a parent goes beyond the biological role of begetting children to the responsibility of inculcating good moral principle in the child.. Teachers/lecturers on their part should know that teaching is not just a noble but also a sacred profession because it has to do with the formation of human beings which in turn determines the future of the society. The job of a teacher can never be properly remunerated by any institution but nature who itself is divine has a way of compensating for human lack. Teachers should therefore use the sacred bond between them and their students to take it upon themselves the job of not being good role models but inculcating good moral values in their children. The Nigeria government should not just invest in managing the problem of cultism in its academic institutions; it should also deploy its security and health instruments for tackling and rehabilitating drugs abusers. Above all, the state should use a day like this to create awareness on the harms of drugs abuse. The way young Nigerians are abusing drugs, including children in primary school, if nothing is done now and fast, in the nearest future Nigeria will become the land of addicts and drug induced criminals.
