The Society for Drug Abuse Enlightenment and Control (SODAEC) has applauded the North-West Governors’ Forum for initiating a summit aimed at addressing the region’s twin challenges of drug abuse and insecurity.
Scheduled for June 2025, the summit “Building a Resilient North-West: Tackling Drug Abuse, Strengthening Security, and Advancing Development” has been described by SODAEC as a timely and strategic intervention in the face of growing threats to public safety and regional stability.
“This is an unprecedented effort at a challenging moment in our country’s history,” said Barrister Ahmad Musa Umar, Executive Director of SODAEC, in a statement issued on Sunday in Kaduna.
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According to him, the willingness to organise the event speaks volumes about the governors’ commitment to addressing the root causes of insecurity.
SODAEC noted that drug abuse in Nigeria has reached alarming proportion, adding that a 2018 government report revealed that over 3 million bottles of codeine-laced cough syrup were consumed daily in just Kano and Jigawa states alone.
He further explained that the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) also estimated that 14.3 million Nigerians aged 15 to 64 about 14.4% of the population were engaged in drug use as of the same year 2018.
Barrister said experts have consistently drawn links between substance abuse and rising insecurity, saying Former NDLEA Chairman, Col. Muhammad Abdullahi (Rtd), emphasized that tramadol and other drug paraphernalia were routinely discovered in terrorist hideouts, warning that Nigeria’s drug abuse rate is triple the global average.
SODAEC urged that the summit should not be a one-time event, but rather the beginning of a sustained, coordinated effort.
“This initiative must go beyond dialogue,” Umar said. “We call for actionable resolutions, periodic reviews, and full implementation if we are to reverse the tide of drug-fueled violence and social decay.”
The group encouraged other regions across the country to emulate the initiative, describing the North-West governors’ action as a potential blueprint for nationwide reform and recovery.
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