•The youth, women connection

From Ahmed Abubakar, Dutse

Recently, the Senate decried the rate of drug abuse in the country. Worried by the development, 38 lawmakers co-sponsored a motion, “The Need to Check the Rising Menace of Pharmaceutical Drug Abuse Among Youths Especially in Northern Nigeria.”

The move by the legislators is a fallout of the alarming trend of illicit drug use in the country, especially in the North. The northern part of Nigeria has been adjudged the highest consumer of hard drugs for several years. With 2,205 cases in 2015, according to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), the North maintains the lead in the number of drug-related arrests in recent times. However, the menace is taking a new dimension, as the habit has been taking a toll on the vulnerable population, particularly youths and women.

New ways

In the past, the common illicit drugs of choice were marijuana, heroine and cocaine. But the trend has changed to accommodate new but milder substances that would cause similar or more sensational effects as conventional narcotics.

It is no longer news that drug addicts now resort to the use of rubber ‘solution,’ lizard excreta, cough syrup containing codeine and tramadol tablets, instead of the conventional hard that were lawfully banned.

In Jigawa State, many youths now consume syrups and over-the-counter (OTC) medications as sedatives and stimulants mixed with or disguised as beverages that could be consumed even in public without attracting attention. For instance, the rate of abuse of Benylin cough syrup, which contains codeine, has positioned the state on top of a ticking timebomb that will sooner or later explode.

These addictions have gone beyond the male youth populations to include teenage girls and young women and even older married women who also see it as a lifestyle that should be explored by ‘real’ and ‘strong’ girls. Findings in Dutse, the state capital, showed that illicit drug consumption has been on the increase for many years.

The Jigawa State commandant of the NDLEA, Ms. Josephine R. Obi, told our reporter that it was pathethic, the way youths consume illicit drugs in the state. The commandant said it has become more worrisome that the crime is also being carried ou by female students at the Federal University, Dutse campus.

She said every day, several empty bottles of cough syrup would be found littering the back of the female hostels as if there was a party of some sort. She noted that the crime has been on the high side in the state and even higher than Bayelsa State, from where she was deployed as a result of its position of being a transit point between Niger Republic and some other states of the country.

Obi said there was no way her limited number of security operatives could curtail the influx of narcotics, OTC drugs and other banned substances into the state despite joint efforts with sister security agencies. She explained that the state NDLEA command does not have the capacity to keep drug addicts either in detention, rehabilitation or for counseling purposes. She added that whenever they have to admit drug addicts, they refer them to Kano State due to acute shortage of manpower and absence of rehabilitation facilities in Jigawa.

Obi said part of the challenges the command was facing was the inability to effect arrest of drug users such as housewives and those found with small quantities of the substances. She further said that the present laws of the land need to be amended to take care of medications and items that were for now not banned even though they have transformed into more dangerous drugs.

She also decried the lack of support from pharmaceuticals and chemist operators, noting that people have devised many ways of converting OTCs and common items to powerful intoxicants, such as ‘blue’ (washing) powder, lizard excreta, rubber solution, petrol and so on. The NDLEA commandant lamented the situation whereby such items even when found on the culprits could not amount to evidence to prosecute them before any court, since they were not controlled or banned substances.

Findings revealed that Jigawa happens to have one of Nigeria’s hotbeds for drug abuse, based on the number of seizures, arrest of addicts and convictions of drug dealers. For instance, recently 253 kilogrammes of tramadol tablets were intercepted in the border town of Maigatari in the state.

The use of hard drugs, according to the Jigawa State deputy governor, Barr. Ibrahim Hassan, especially among the youth, has become a real social menace and cuts across all social strata, with children from both rich and poor backgrounds deeply into it.

According to the deputy governor, more unconventional drugs are also being used, not just codeine-laced cough syrup, which has become popular among married women, but also solvents and powerful horse stimulants.

He said: “Until we begin to look into reforming our laws that prohibit such illicit activities and make clear-cut agreements, we would not be able to prosecute a person found with cartons of rubber solution in his shop, even though there are very few bicycles plying the roads in the state; or a chemist that predominantly sells cough syrup more than other drugs, who should be examined and prosecuted, if there is the enabling law for that.”

Why they do it

Among the causes of illicit drug use are problems between married people, forced marriages, quest for adventure and peer group influences, which result in high divorce rates, broken homes and breakdown of family values.

Jigawa, like many states in the northwestern part of Nigeria, is predominantly a Muslim society that allows men to take up to four wives, which has, however, also contributed to social problems. The marriages are mostly done within the poor social circle that is characterised by high rate of childbirth with little or no resources to cater for them. The marriages often end in divorce.

Related News

However, many of such women would rather leave the man’s house along with their large number of children, who find themselves vulnerable to the adverse effects of poor upbringing. The result is financial constraints and inability to fend for such huge number of children, which in turn compels such kids to take to the streets looking for a means of livelihood however possible. 

This situation has been one of the major factors that make youngsters pick up drugs to blot out hardship. Twenty-six-year-old Muktar Ahmad of Gida Dubu quarters in Dutse told our reporter that he was pushed into the use of drugs to get away from his family issues.

He said his father fell out with his mother when he was still in the primary school. He did not have it nice when his father took in another woman whom he said never treated him like a son.

His story: “My stepmother treated me with disdain and hatred. She would scold me, call me all sorts of names and refuse to feed me, even when she cooked, and my father would not do anything to protect me. This forced me to stay outside the house most of the time and hang out with friends I made in our neighbourhood.

“My father never cared about my whereabouts; his only concern was about his new wife. Even the children she came with from another man were better cared for than myself. So that was how I gradually got introduced to drugs. I initially started with cigarettes and now I have graduated to taking hemp and cough mixture with codeine and other psychotropics. A lot of young men take drugs to get high and forget their frustration. When you take it you feel happy and your worries disappear.”

For 36-year-old Abdullahi, alias Baron, who said he was a pampered child, because he was born into a rich family of seven, he ventured into drugs while he was in a boarding school where they formed a secret group that would sneak into town after bed-check time for numerous escapades.

He said they had enough money to indulge in all their adventures. Studying was never a priority then.

“We always thought our parents would secure for us the best universities after we have graduated.

“After leaving school, we continued with our exploits on more hardened drugs, until I lost my father in a terrible accident. It was at that moment that I realised that I no longer had anybody.

“It is no longer drug abuse but substance abuse, as drug users now experiment with anything that will get them high,” Abdullahi said.

Sports

The state government has established a sports institute and vocational training centres for young people and set up a drug rehabilitation centre for addicts. Children sent to the city by their parents from impoverished villages, who often find themselves on the streets, will be sent back when a ban on begging comes into effect soon.

Several reports about young girls in tertiary institutions in northern Nigeria, who have taken to the abuse of cough syrup containing codeine have been rife. The syrup is usually mixed with soft drink, and it has devastated many upper and middle class families in northern Nigeria. 

A prominent religious scholar and Chief Imam of Takur Mosque in Dutse, Mallam Aminu Baba Waziri, pointed out that the problem was destroying even the mothers in many homes. As the women have suffered physical and emotional abuse at home, the children have induced their mothers to use codein as an escape from their abusive relationships and before long the mothers invariably get hooked. 

Over the years, the abuse of cough syrups has become so widespread that even secondary school students use it regularly.

He stressed that parents and caregivers must redouble their efforts to keep an eye on their wards to detect early signs of their involvement in drugs and also to continue to admonish them on the ills and dangers of drug abuse.

Even the Emir of Dutse, Alhaji Nuhu Muhammed Sanusi, has confirmed that the habit is progressing at an alarming rate, and charged the Police Officers Wive’s Association (POWA) to prevail on their husbands to curb the menace of illicit drug trafficking in the North.

The emir, while receiving the national president of POWA, Princess Asma’u Ndayako Idris, who paid him a courtesy visit recently, said: “You should talk to your husbands who are the security officers to ensure adequate measures to curb this menace.”

The emir, who was represented by the Galadiman Dutse, Alhaji Basiru Muhammed Sanusi, said: “It is unfortunate that this practice has moved further to include married women in villages and other communities. The abuse of drugs is a source of worry to the state. Even students in our schools that we believe would be our future leaders have taken to the unfortunate habit.”

Earlier, the POWA president, who is the wife of the Inspector-General of Police, told the emir that she was in the state to sensitise people against illicit drug abuse and child molestation. She called on the traditional institution and the state government to partner with POWA in reducing the menace of drug abuse and child molestation.

Also, the deputy governor assured the association of the state’s commitment to partner with it and also develop a blueprint towards empowering youths across the state.