What We Are Doing To Stem Drug Abuse – SPEYADA

Since 1996, the Society for Proper Education of the Youths Against Drug Abuse (SPEYADA) has created a platform for advocacy to bring to the fore the effects of drug abuse to youths, especially in secondary schools.

To achieve its objectives, the non-governmental organization has collaborated with various organisations including the Ministry of Women Affairs, Ministry Of Justice, National Youth Service Corps and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, on several advocacy projects to help curb the menace of drug abuse in Nigeria.

Speaking in an interview with THE WHISTLER recently in Abuja, SPEYADA’s Secretary General, TONY OGBULAFOR, informed our correspondent, ATING ENWONGO, on the objective of the society and some of its challenges. Excerpts:

Focus of the organisation

Ogbulafor: Our objective has been to bring to the youths proper information without embellishment or reduction so that they will understand the dangers inherent in drug abuse.

Our main focus is to ensure that these youths do not even attempt drug abuse because if you attempt it you may be hooked and once you are hooked it becomes difficult to unhook you.

Now If not for the BBC undercover on codeine abuse, everybody has been living in denial that there is no drug abuse in Nigeria, and what the government has failed to tell our people is that Nigeria has changed from a trafficked root to a consumer root.

What this means is that before now, people bring drugs to Nigeria with the purposes of taking it to other places, but now we are using it here on a very alarming proportion.

So because the drugs are quite expensive and there is no money in the country, this people who have tested these drugs have resulted to other drugs, which ordinarily would not be termed a hard drug but also have the effect of a hard drug.

Take for instance Benylin with codeine, which is ordinarily used for cough has now become a drug that is widely abused.

They have left all these other drugs that you know, like Benylin and tramadol have been exposed, and moved to cocktails. They bring various ordinarily non-addictive drugs; combine it to get the effect the hard drugs give to them. So our main focus is to let these children know that this business is not good business.

What SPEYADA stands for

Ogbulafor: We are not an enforcement agency; we are an advisory agency, so we bring the information to them and also let them know that we are not compelling you to adhere to what we are saying but it will be in your interest to listen and follow what we are saying.

So the idea is to see a way of making children not to even get into it but those who have already gotten into it we also encourage them to come out.

Causes and measures to stem drug abuse

Ogbulafor: What we discovered is that most of this people are under pressure, they do not have the right information, so a friend can say you are a “ju man”, if you take this thing it will show that you are a correct guy, and without proper information he believes that if he is not taking it he is a “ju man” so he would want to be a real man, taste it and the trouble starts from there.

So our duty is to bring proper information so they do not listen to their peers who may be misguided.

Again, part of the causes is idleness; you don’t have anything doing and somebody comes and engages you in drugs. So we provide activities to keep the children engaged.

SPEYADA’s activities

Ogbulafor: We provide quiz, sports competitions, that way they are engaged so that they hardly move into what will destroy their lives.

Most of the people you call big men in Abuja all have problems because they have placed so much money in their houses that the children now have access to the money and use it to experiment on these drugs and at the end of the day they end up with one issue or the other.

SPEYADA and drug abuse amongst law enforcement officers

Ogbulafor: Our advocacy is aimed at the youths principally, that does not mean if we have the opportunity to extend it to adults we won’t, but the difficulty in older people, like the say old habit die hard, so if an adult, say a man between the age of 40 and 50 is into drugs, it would be difficult to tell him to refrain, until he has an encounter and finally listens and decide to change.

I know someone, and we were talking to his children and they always say since they came into this world our father has been smoking so why would you tell us that smoking is dangerous. With such an example it would be difficult to convince that young lad.

However, when we started exposing certain things, for instance, the man’s teeth are blackish, many of his trousers have holes, and his knuckles are also blackish, we pointed all of these to be the results of his smoking, so if you want to be like this you can go ahead. It was after all these points they saw reasons with us.

It was later disclosed to us that the man has organ issues and was under treatment.

Relations with the Federal Government

Ogbulafor: We have collaborated with the Ministry of Women Affairs, Ministry Of Justice, National Youth Service Corps, and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency but as government changes the focus also changes, you will agree with me that there is no focus on drug abuse from the government.

Even NDLEA is not doing anything as far as letting people know the danger but rather they are going to the airport to arrest people dealing with drugs but our target is on the users, so we are collaborating with them to stop both peddlers and the users.

On codeine ban

Ogbulafor: That is just one item, there are several other items. In fact, nowadays children now settle for sniffing manholes and petrol which is very intoxicating.

So, because you ban codeine does not mean anything, because just one item is stopped with others like the cocktails (flavoured tobacco) left lingering.

Challenges faced by SPEYADA

Ogbulafor: Several challenges. We do not have the required finances we need to run the job and secondly people do not easily welcome us because they are not sure if we are legit or not, so there is always that suspicion in the first encounter, but after breaking the ice they now acknowledge we are real and long to be a part of what we are doing.

This has been how we have been able to penetrate into so many places like the government agencies.

On measures to curb drug abuse

Ogbulafor: What is required is aggressive advocacy from the government and its agencies, then the NGOs and Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) can now assist. So, banning codeine is not enough but they should provide accessible and proper information, especially to the youths so as to stop them from indulging in the act.