Adeze Ojukwu
The nation’s public space is reverberating with reactions to the recent ban of codeine-containing cough syrup by the Federal Government. Amidst widespread commendations over the drastic measure, some stakeholders want a more pragmatic and comprehensive policy to tackle the obscure and remote causes of this bizarre and degenerative addiction.
However, Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole, said the measure would halt the abuse, as codeine, the active ingredient in cough syrup would be replaced by dextromethorphan, a less addictive agent. The move came on the heels of the BBC documentary tagged ‘Sweet Sweet Codeine,’ reiterating the popular notion that ‘Cough syrup is killing a generation.’
Indeed a fire-brigade approach, will not adequately address the underlying motifs behind the addiction. Experts believe that rehabilitation and advocacy must be factored into the national anti-drug scheme, as the outright ban of codeine and other pharmaceutical neuro-psychotic medications, may force many addicts to seek alternative substances to satiate their appetite for opiates.
The raging public concern over drug abuse resonates the escalating proportion of the epidemic and its monumental toll on society. A few weeks ago, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said ‘legalisation of cannabis was not supported by the three UN international drug conventions,’ as ‘about 14.3 percent of Nigeria’s population smokes cannabis being the third largest consumption rate globally.’ It is certainly a national tragedy, that a significant percentage of the populace is addicted to illicit substances including cannabis, cocaine, marijuana, codeine and all sorts of tranquilizers. The fact that these addicts, particularly youths, also inhale toxic gas from gum, cow dung, sewage tanks, refuse dumps, and other noxious substances calls for serious introspection and an urgent national response.
This aberration is another index of the nation’s socio-economic disequilibrium and dismal failure to secure the future of its young generation. The huge demand and consumptive passion for illicit drugs, even among females, particularly in the north, underscores horrific psychological and mental maladies, as many of them depend on these sedatives to escape reality.
Obviously, several control mechanisms and rehabilitation programmes by government and international partners to reverse this mania have failed.
Several prominent Nigerians have expressed concern over this epidemic. Recently, Kwara State Governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, urged Federal Government to declare a state of emergency on substance abuse saying ‘it was a major cause of insurgency and armed robberies and violence.’ He made the call just as containers of codeine were seized in Katsina, Kaduna and Kano, where millions of bottles of codeine, analgesics and other non-prescription drugs are indiscriminately peddled and consumed daily.
Apart from the codeine ban, relevant agencies must tackle this menace, holistically, due to its vicious impacts on the victims, families and society. Meanwhile, the Senate is proposing a Mental Health and Substance Abuse Bill, as part of a legislative framework to combat use of dangerous psychoneurotic substances, across the country, especially in the North, the epicenter of the crises.
‘Pharmaceutical drug abuse is threatening a generation of Northern Nigerian women, including young girls in tertiary institutions, working class ladies, married women, unemployed women, displaced women from the Boko Haram insurgency.’
‘While drug abuse, especially cannabis and cocaine, had been a long-time problem among Northern male youths, codeine cough syrup and other prescriptive drugs have become, as termed, the new cancer ravaging women and girls in the North,’ it noted. Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, said ‘in the North in particular an entire generation is being destroyed because of drug abuse.’
Similarly, National President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Ahmed Yakassi, said the abuse has also affected the educational sector, stressing the need ‘to develop community-based communication platforms to reach vulnerable groups particularly youths and children. Everybody must be involved in this advocacy.’
Several reasons have been advanced for narcotic dependence, notably unemployment, poverty, immorality, poor parental care, peer pressure, genetics, psychological and mental instabilities. Infact, most dysfunctional and eccentric youths and adults are products of childhood violations and social deficiencies. Computer magnate and philanthropist, Bill Gates, underscored this point in a recent visit to the country saying: ‘Nigeria is one of the most dangerous places in the world to give birth, with the fourth worst maternal mortality rate in the world, ahead of only Sierra Leone, Central African Republic, and Chad. One in three Nigerian children is chronically malnourished.’
‘The World Bank World Development Report makes it clear that education leads to improvements in employment, productivity and wages. Today, more than half of rural Nigerian children can’t read and write. The conclusion is inescapable: Nigeria’s economy tomorrow depends on improving its schools today. The same is true of health, our foundation’s primary focus area.’ ‘In 1978, Dr Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, who later became the Nigerian Minister of Health, helped establish primary health care. Tragically, 40 years after Dr Ransome-Kuti helped other countries set a course for the future, the Nigerian primary health care system is broken. The evidence can be found in the epidemic of chronic malnutrition, and stunting. Chronic malnutrition is not a disease children catch. It develops over time because they are deprived of a diverse diet and services a strong primary health care system provides. Once this kind of damage is done, it’s very hard to repair.’
According to Gates, this is a tragedy for these children, a huge blow to the economy and everything else. The progress and future of any society are often defined by the well-being of its citizens, particularly young people, who are susceptible to vices and vulnerabilities. Many civilized societies devote huge resources to education, health and social services for the development of their children and youths.
But in Nigeria, the reverse is the case, as humongous budgetary allocations to critical sectors, are often diverted to private accounts. This systemic profligacy is essentially responsible for the country’s proclivity for breeding corrupt leaders, drug addicts, criminals, terrorists and millions of street kids.
Ojukwu writes via [email protected]
