Buba Marwa, Chairman of the Presidential Advisory
Committee for the Elimination of Drug Abuse, has
said of Nigeria’s estimated population of about 180
million, there are 15 million drug addicts.


Marwa, who was former military governor of Lagos
State, referred to the development as alarming. He
said the global average rating of drug use and abuse
is five per cent, noting that “In Nigeria, we are at 15
per cent.”

Marwa made this claim on Wednesday, in Kaduna, in
the company of members of his committee, when
he addressed officers and men of Katsina Command
of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency
(NDLEA).

“We have an emergency situation before us
regarding the issue of drugs abuse in Nigeria,” he
said.

He said the Nigerian government decided to raise
the committee to proffer recommendations and
steps to be taken to resolve the issue of drug abuse
in the country,

Marwa had earlier visited the Katsina Government
House, where he told Governor Aminu Bello Masari
that the committee commenced work last
December.



“We started our work since December and finished
the plenary and now we are visiting states across
the country.

“On the whole, we are facing the supply side of
drugs, in terms of cutting the supply because you
must have drugs first before the use. Government
agencies involved need to be strengthened to be
able to carry out their functions effectively, and the
demand side appears to be more difficult to handle.

“We also need to take the preventive measures to
ensure that those who do not take the drugs remain
so. We have to interface with esteemed leaders
across the country. We feel that there ought to be
committees on drug abuse, right from the federal to
the local governments and across the communities.

“We do not know that the causes of drug abuse
include, but it’s not limited to poverty, joblessness
and idleness which translate to looking for jobs.

Rehabilitation and counselling centres are few. We
will interface with religious organisations and
traditional leaders and also examine the Almajiri
situation and embellish with western education. The
Almajiris, in the course of their training, do other
things that are not good for them.”


In his remarks, Masari described the state’s borders
as porous, adding that “unscrupulous elements
exploit the situation to smuggle illicit drugs and other
substances into Nigeria.”

“The fundamental issue which we have to address is
massive investment in education. The most
effective way is massive investment in public
education, because that is where you have over 90
per cent of the population,” he added.

http://saharareporters.com/2019/03/29/‘nigeria-has-15-million-drug-addicts’

Most of our politicians are sure to be among the 15million drug addicts

Lordave:
12 million from the North.

rubbish

When Tiwa savage and CDQ are on Condiene diet why won't it be 15million.