….says over 15 million in drug abuse
By Our Correspondent
The Executive Secretary, National Association of Nigeria Drug Monitoring (NANDROM) Dr. Christabel Okoye has blamed the rising cases of drugs abuse among the youth on the failure of parents to watch over their wards.
Dr. Christabel Okoye who runs a drug rehabilitation and detoxification centre in Abuja said in the course of her work she has realized that some parents don’t care about the conduct of their children, especially when they go out and when they come back.
Speaking with some journalists at the National Assembly Wednesday, Dr. Okoye said the ugly situation has made drug abuse to be on the increase whereby pupils of primary school age are said to be part of the menace.
She said about 47% of Nigerian youths, roughly 15-18 million of them are into drugs to the extent that in secondary school of 2,000 population, you hardly see 500 that are not into drugs abuse, including primary schools.
According to her, the leading cause of this is carelessness on the part of “parents who don’t care about the time their children come back from school and don’t care what they do in school”.
Unfortunately, the major victims are the rich, saying “You think you have money. Go and check the statistics, most parents that have money are the ones that their children are doing this. So, parents should be careful of peer group influence. Train your children, let them know who they are so that no force will pull them away. How do they consider the fact that parents will send their children of junior secondary school abroad to study. What kind of children do you want to have? These are the problems we’re having in this nation.
