Rescuing northern ladies from drug abuse , By Gbemiga Olakunle

Daily Trust of Saturday, November 25, 2017 reported the illicit use of drugs among female Nigerian youths including married women from the North. According to the report, the problem of drug abuse or addiction is more prevalent among young girls/ladies and married women from the North-west, particularly Kaduna and Kano and spreading to North-east of Borno and Adamawa states.
The report said drug abuse was hitherto prevalent among males in the region, adding that the ratio was 5 males to 2 females. But now the trend has changed to 5 males to 4 females hooked one drugs. While some of these ladies may not be addicted to cocaine, heroine or Indian hemp popularly known as marijuana or weeds, they do indulge in substance abuse like codeine syrup or other cough mixtures and prescription drugs obtainable from pharmacy stores. Unfortunately, these habits are concealed from their parents/guardians or husbands. And sometimes these parents or leaders from the region are in self-denial because of the social stigma of drug addiction.
According to the report, some of the affected ladies go hotels/guest houses during the day to indulge substance abuse and return home late at night under the guise of paying visits to their friends. Some even patronize night clubs where they smoke all kinds of drugs including cigarettes before returning home, putting on hijabs or veils covering their heads. And this problem may be one of the reasons for the rise in the breakup of marriages in Northern. Some high degree domestic violence may be linked to this problem; recently, a northern married to the son of a former PDP chairman reportedly stabbed her husband to death over alleged infidelity.
Similarly, drug abuse has also been reported among female young undergraduates from the South. The irony is that some of these girls sneak from their faith-based private universities despite measures to restrict their movement. Incidentally, some parents of these innocent looking girls in their late teenage may not know that their wards/children are no longer “Dad’s or “Mum’s pet”. Instead some of their “loving angels” are actually drug addicts or drunks.
Who is to blame for this social malady? The blame should be shared by both parents and society. Sometimes, some parents abdicate their roles of good parenting to the nannies/house helps or school authorities. They fail to heed to the Biblical injunction to “train the child in the paths in which he should go. When he/she is old he will not depart from it”. Instead they delegate this crucial role to nannies or house helps who sometimes maltreat these children to the point of death or sell them to kidnappers/ritualists.
Sometimes, some of these parents are even afraid to correct or discipline their wards whenever they notice some traits of subtle rebellion or insubordination. Rather they report such children to their school authorities. “Madness resides in the hearts of little children, it is the rod of correction that will drive it out”, says the Scripture. Parents should take full responsibility for the shaping/molding the characters of their children from infancy to adolescent. To do otherwise is like playing with the future of these children whose characters may be molded by their friends or peer pressure later in their lives either for good or bad.
Also the society at large has its own share of blame in the prevalence of these social delinquents. Laws are in place to restrict sales of alcoholic drinks to children who are under 18 talk less or consuming them in the open. Also, there is restriction or ban on cigarette smoking. But these laws are not enforced which have prompted our youths to indulge in freaky parties in some public places like hotels while the relevant authorities look on.
Idleness is another contributing factor. Some of our young school leavers and graduates are left to roam the streets years after they left school or the completion of their mandatory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme. While it may not be feasible for government to provide white-collar jobs for all these youths, government can provide the enabling environment to engage them in sectors like agriculture.
Faith-based organisations like churches, mosques and NGOs can complement government’s efforts by establishing large scale farming/agro- allied and manufacturing industries where these youths can be employed. Religions leaders should not stop preaching to these youths, they should also encourage them to be good God-worshippers. In other words, they should take a step further to use their structures to provide gainful employment to stem the temptation of their drift into foreign lands in search of green pastures where cruel fate sometimes awaits them.
Recently, over the media space was inundated with stories of how our youths and other Black African immigrants perished in the deserts or on the Mediterranean sea in attempt to cross from Libya to the Europe through Italy in their fruitless search for “green pastures”. Evidently, some faith-based organisations in Nigeria have the wherewithal to make the pastures greener for these roaming youths. In extreme cases, we have shared stories of how some of these Nigerian adventuring youths end up on the slaughter slabs of some alleged cruel Chinese businessman who butchered them to harvest their internal organs for sale to foreign hospitals, who need them for their patients.
The bottom line is idleness or lack of proper parental upbringing that have led to upsurge of drug addiction among our youths with dire consequences. The remedy is for parents, government, school authorities, religious organisations, NGOs, and other stakeholders to synergise in order to rescue our youth from the bondage of drug abuse. This will save our present and future generations.