Winning The War Against Drug Abuse Requires Holistic Efforts – Minister

The minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouq has said that winning the war against drug abuse requires holistic efforts from all stakeholders. 

Umar Farouq also stressed the need to educate young adults to stay away from drug abuse and encourage those who are currently abusing drugs to stop the act.

The minister made the appeal during the occasion titled Awareness Creation on Drug Addiction and Effect: Strategies Towards Addressing the Challenges in Health and Humanitarian Crises, a Collective Responsibility held in Abuja yesterday.

Stressing the need for collective efforts to tackle the menace she said Nigerians must be educated on the dangers of drug abuse and its consequences.

“In our journey to nation building and national development, we need to put in more efforts towards addressing the menace of drug and substance abuse among youths in the country.

“The menace should not be left to government, individuals, and rehabs alone but should be a collective responsibility with everyone playing their role,” she said.

The minister noted that the event resonates with the Ministry’s advocacy programmes towards informing and educating parents, communities, and society to understand the reality of drug abuse and the need for them to come together to address drug abuse in the country.

Umar Farouq said, “The government is doing a lot in schools on the drug issue. We must take drug abuse programmes very seriously in order to have a sane society.

“As government, we realized that even amongst the developing countries of the world, Nigeria is plagued with the challenges of substance abuse which has become a significant threat to public health, national stability, peace, security, and economic development.”

“In view of the prevailing crisis of substance abuse in Nigeria, she said family setting, education setting, peace and security, early childhood education among others that are experiencing crises and need urgent care to guide policy interventions.

“You are all aware that trends in humanitarian crises or emergencies have shifted in recent years in the country, terrorism, communal violence, political conflicts have become more intense, more people have been internally displaced in the last decade than ever before, hunger and poverty have increased, and climate change has precipitated natural disasters and severe weather events.

“However, addressing the underlying causes of vulnerability to the impacts of crises is crucial to sustainable development and in particular drug or substance use prevention. Nigeria is not left out in the global humanitarian crises and it has its own additional set of settings and risk factors that further worsen the burden of substance use and its disorders in the country.

“The Ministry is working assiduously to ensuring that absence of a functioning social security system in the country in the past, capable of providing support to households illicit drug use and or lost jobs and income which complicate also the unemployment situation in Nigeria is a thing of the past,” she added.