* Smoking Indian hemp with glee in higher institutions in Enugu, Anambra, Imo, Abia and Ebonyi states
From Petrus Obi, Enugu
In some institutions of higher learning in Ebonyi State, the issue of hard drug sale and consumption is quite high. But Ebonyi State University, with its three campuses, ranks the highest. In its campus located at Ishieke, students are said to have a field day consuming the stuff.
At the College of Agriculture, CAS, Abakaliki, there are also traces of use of hard drugs especially among students living at Okpaugwu, Abakaliki. The Ebonyi State College of Education, Ikwo, is also not left out.
Speaking on the issue, Dr. Nwanga Matthew of Department of Guidance and Counseling, Ebonyi State University said: “Majority of the students whom we have the opportunity of counseling revealed that they were lured into smoking Indian hemp on the excuse that it will open their ‘blocked’ brains to be able to understand lectures and do well in their exams. But it is all false; it has hundred percent adverse effect and can ruin their future.”
Prof. Okoye Nwadiuto of the Faculty of Social Sciences called for more measures to strengthen the anti-drug societies in the campuses to be able to drive the campaign against hard drugs and other sundry activities with success.
At Nwafor Orizu College of Education, Nsugbe, Mr. Benny Egbunonu, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the college said that such case of smoking doesn’t exist in the college because the institution is predominately female students. He added that although majority of the students stay off-campus, with only few living in the hostel, no such case has been reported since the inception of the school.
At Abia State Polytechnic located in the commercial city of Aba, individual students indulge in Indian hemp smoking, but it is done privately and not within the precincts of the school. Emmanuel Chima, a student of the polytechnic, explains the reason this is so. “In Abia Poly, the land mass is small, so much that every available space has one structure or the other that students make use of, round-the-clock. So there is no hidden place on campus for Indian hemp smokers.”
Our correspondent says the use of hard drug of any kind is strictly prohibited on all the campuses of higher learning in Imo State. According to Mr. Chike Ezenwa, the Public Relations Officer of Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), any student caught will be expelled.
“We don’t even permit the sale of ordinary cigarettes and alcoholic drinks on the campus,” he said. “So the issue of students selling or smoking Indian hemp is out of the question. The students are aware of the university’s code of conduct and any breach of such code attracts stiff penalty.”
The story is the same at Imo state University where the university management has banned the use and sale of illicit drugs and alcoholic beverage. If caught, the university warns, offenders would not only be dismissed but also handed over to law enforcement agents. Nze Ralph Njoku-Obi, the university PRO, said that the management of institution has a stringent law against the use of any kind of hard drugs by its students.
However, in spite of the stringent measures adopted by these educational institutions, it was discovered that most of the students who live in private hostels in the surrounding communities have areas where they go to smoke Indian hemp. They call them “cube” joints.
The joints are patronised not only by students but by also security agents including army personnel who normally give the sellers protection from being arrested by officers of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA). Although these “cube” joints are scattered all over the area, only the initiates know where they are located. One of the dealers in Indian hemp is popularly known as Igwe ji Obodo (the pillar that holds the city).
Procuring the stuff has never been a problem for students of tertiary institutions in Enugu. There are street vendors as well as student vendors. A student confided in our correspondent that there are students who deal in it. “Whenever you need it, they will never fail you because they feed from it,” he said. It was further gathered that some of the drinks used during campus cult initiations are mixed with Indian hemp and left to ferment for days.
Dr. Ndubuisi Okereke, a medical practitioner at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital warns that intoxication and addiction can lead to a wide range of psychiatric problems that include depression, mania, and even psychosis.
The peddling and consumption of Indian hemp in institutions of higher learning in Anambra State, especially the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka and Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Uli is no news to inhabitants of host communities.
The two universities being non-residential for students, make it possible for smokers among them, both male and female, to be uninhibited in wild adventures with the stuff. Popular places where they buy them include the streets around Ifite Road, stretching from Arroma Junction through the back of the university to Amansea town in Awka North Local Government, for UNIZIK students, and along Ukwuru, Igbariam Road for students of Igbariam campus of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University.
Most peddlers of the weed are old students who may have either graduated, or were rusticated and non-students living in the midst of the students. Investigations by our correspondent showed that every other higher institution within the state get its supplies of Indian hemp from UNIZIK. It was reliably gathered that along Ifite Road up to Amaeyi market in Awka, there are, conservatively speaking, 17 selling points unknown to anti-drug agencies and the university authorities.
Further investigation revealed that the dealers interestingly network with some dedicated customers who inform them on security situations in Awka as regards arrest and prosecution. Some policemen and women within the rank and files of the command are also alleged to be offering cover to peddlers by creating information blockade in the fight against narcotics use in the universities.
Inside the campus, it is alleged that students of the Faculty of Social Sciences Arts and School of Business Management are the highest consumers. Hence most peddlers use some of them as moles in marketing the product.
The UNIZIK management under the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Joseph Ahaneku, had, through its anti-cult outfit, ensured that no part of the university premises is being used to carry out such illegal activity. Hence the business is done off-campus.
At Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Umuahia, students who take it run a very reliable phone network; if you need it, all that you have to do is to call the dealer’s number and he supplies it to you.
Comrade Joshua Nwachukwu, NANS Coordinator, Abia State/Financial Secretary representing the South East and the South South states said that most of the students who take it live outside the university campus, in some private commercial living quarters located at the back of the administration block.
“You always see them on top of bike, moving from one joint to another as they go for fresh supplies,” he told The Sun Education. “They operate in uncompleted buildings, abandoned structures, abandoned motor vehicles, palm wine joints and places where they sell so-called malaria herbs. Truth is, the main article of trade in such places is Indian hemp. The police know them and can fish them out if they want. But they don’t because in most cases some of the policemen are their customers and friends.”
– With reports from George Onyejiuwa, Owerri; Okey Sampson, Aba; Jeff Amechi Agbodo, Onitsha; Emmanuel Uzor, Abakaliki; Geoffrey Anyanwu, Awka and Chuks Onuoha, Umuahia
[to be continued next week]