Segun Atanda/
President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki has reacted to a BBC Africa’s exposé on drug abuse in Nigeria.
Saraki commended the BBC’s ‘Africa Eye’ documentary ‘Sweet Sweet Codeine’ which detailed the widespread prevalence of drug and substance abuse in Nigeria.
In a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Sanni Onogu, Saraki says documentaries like ‘Sweet Sweet Codeine’ are real-life attestations on the need for Nigeria to take its drug abuse problem more seriously.
“The widespread nature of this substance abuse problem in Nigeria is why the Senate convened the stakeholder Roundtable in Kano in December,” Saraki stated, “Even though I have been working on this issue for a few months now, watching the BBC documentary was another eye-opener. Nigerians can now see that if care is not taken, we could be sitting on a catastrophe. We cannot all just fold our arms and expect this issue to fix itself. This is everybody’s problem.
“As things stand, following the Roundtable on Drug Abuse that held in Kano in December 2017, we have already developed a draft Legislative framework for the control of narcotics and psychotropic substances and the provision of mental health and substance use services in Nigeria.
“With the Drug Control Bill that we are set to introduce, the mandate of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration Control (NAFDAC) and other relevant law enforcement and other regulatory bodies will be strengthened to eradicate the illicit production, and trafficking of controlled substances.
“While the Mental Health Bill will ensure the availability of mental health and substance abuse services in every state, as well as guarantee the enforcement of minimum standards of care for people with mental health disorders.
“This is because, we cannot continue like this. We cannot continue to have one psychiatrist for every 1.6million Nigerians and expect this substance abuse problem to go away. This legislative framework that we are preparing recognizes the low number of mental health practitioners in the country, and works to rectify that problem by ensuring that quality mental health and substance abuse services are available for this underserved segment of the population.”
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