In a bid to curb the growing menace of drug abuse among young people, the Galleon Bay Deck Chapter of the National Association of Seadogs (NAS), also known as the Pyrates’ Confraternity, has organised a one-day sensitisation programme for youths and school children in the Mpape community of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The campaign, which featured a road walk and public lecture, sought to raise awareness about the dangers of substance abuse and promote preventive measures to protect young Nigerians from addiction and related social problems.
Our correspondent reports that the event is part of the larger NAS Street Child Project, a national advocacy and humanitarian campaign against drug abuse and homelessness being implemented across Nigeria and in NAS chapters abroad.
Speaking to journalists at the event, Samuel Abhulimen, the Galleon Bay Deck project execution and monitoring adviser for the NAS Street Child Project, said the decision to target school children and youths in the campaign is deliberate, because they are the leaders of tomorrow leaders.
He said a major expected outcome from the project is to ensure that more young persons become aware of the implications of drug abuse and also get more children off the streets.
He said, “We choose Mpape because our findings showed that it is one of the communities within the FCT with large number of youths engaged in drug abuse. And many of the youths have dropped out of school due to drug abuse. So, the first step we are taking as a Deck is that we decided to say let us create awareness against wrong usage of drugs.”
He added that the association was working closely with the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and exploring further collaborations to strengthen preventive efforts at the community level.
Also speaking, Mr. Nduka Augustine, a Chief Superintendent of Narcotics and Officer in Charge of Drug Abuse and Sensitisation at the NDLEA Abuja Command, stressed that awareness and early intervention remain the most effective strategies against drug abuse.
He said the job of the agency is to ensure that people do not produce, distribute or use drugs that are classified as dangerous drugs.
Mr Augustine advised to monitor behavoral change in their children as well as the friends they keep.
He said, “Parents need to be enlightened so they begin to understand the behavioural signs and symptoms that they possibly will start noticing in their children, so they will begin to raise their level of suspicion. Drug use comes with changes in behaviour. When a parent starts missing things, money or valuables in the house, they should raise their level of suspicion.
“And if you start suspecting anything, you can take a step and do a drug test. It is available in all our facilities nationwide. And within 5 minutes you can either disapprove your suspicion or confirm your suspicion and take steps further.”
Mr Augustine described drug abuse as a major societal challenge, noting that many organisations have introduced pre-employment drug tests due to the rising prevalence of substance use among young adults.
He said, “The situation is worrisome, but the NDLEA under the leadership of our chairman is doing so much in terms of arrest, seizure and prosecutions. But what we are doing here today is prevention. We are saying we cannot arrest our way out of it. We want to be able to stop people from initiating the use. So that when people display these things for use and nobody is buying, because people are now aware of the dangers, definitely they will not have market to sell.