By Ibironke Ariyo
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and the Federal Ministry of Education have agreed to introduce a compulsory drug integrity test for students of tertiary institutions.
The organisations also agreed to review the secondary school curriculum to incorporate drug education.
The agreement was reached between the two agencies when the NDLEA Chairman, retired Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa, paid a courtesy visit to the Ministry on Wednesday in Abuja.
Marwa, who led a delegation of his management team to the meeting with the Minister of Education, Dr Maruf Alausa, commended the minister for his proactive approach to his job.
He highlighted the devastating effect of substance abuse on the country’s youthful population, adding that the fight against illicit drugs was a fight for the souls of the Nigerian youth.
Marwa said that the focus of the agency would be on schools and educational institutions, adding that there were millions of Nigerian children that were under the supervision of the ministry, and it’s very critical.
“So, we’re actually fighting for the souls of our children. Now, we also know that use of drugs is exacerbating criminal activities. That is, 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.”
Marwa said that with support from President Bola Tinubu, within the last two years, the agency arrested 40,887 criminal elements, obtained 8,682 convictions and seized 5,507 metric tons of illicit drugs.
According to him, from January last year, opioids, that’s tramadol seized, are in excess of one billion pills, which is worth more than N1 trillion.
The NDELA boss emphasised that the President was also supporting the agency to build seven rehabilitation centres in addition to the existing 30 centres in NDLEA commands nationwide.
Marwa noted that President Tinubu had also approved the construction of one model rehab centre in each of the geo-political zones in the country.
He listed three key areas he would want the Ministry and NDLEA to collaborate to effectively check the menace of substance abuse among Nigerian youths.
According to him, the first suggestion 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 about is to adopt a drug testing policy in tertiary institutions, because we want a policy to keep our campuses clean.”
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 knew him 30 years ago, he’s still serving the country.”
Alausa, however, noted that the drug scourge was 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 a 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.
Talking about the areas of collaboration, the Minister suggested that a technical working group, inter-ministerial working group be formed between the Education ministry and NDLEA.
“We’re reviewing the curriculum now for secondary school. And that’s why I’ve asked the director of Senior Secondary School to come, to be here and then we find a way to cascade it down to primary school.”
The minister also assured of getting two agencies under the ministry, UBEC and TETFund to partner with the NDLEA Academy in Jos as part of efforts to deepen drug education in basic, secondary and tertiary institutions across the country.
In his remarks, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Mr Abel Enitan, announced the take-off of a Substance Use Prevention Unit in the ministry as directed by the minister. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
Edited by Ifeyinwa Okonkwo and Yakubu Uba
