Osinbajo: FG to Release Two-year National Survey on Drug Use by December

â–ª As NDLEA plans to build standard rehabilitation centre in Abuja

Adedayo Akimwale in Abuja

The Acting President,‎ Prof. Yemi Osinbajo said the federal government would release the first national household survey on drug use and health, as well as the national survey of problem of drug use in Nigeria ‎by December.

Osinbajo who was represented by the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole gave the hint in Abuja ‎at the grand finale for the commemoration of 2017 International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, where he said the increasing number of illegal drug consumption and its impact on the state and society was not in doubt.

He noted that as part of national effort to reverse the trend, Nigeria joined member nations in April 2016 during the United Nations general assembly special ‎session on drugs to confirm the 2009 policy documents on political declaration and plan of action on international cooperation towards integrated and balanced strategy to counter the world drug problem.

The acting President stressed that it was gratifying to know that the country has in place a national drug control master plan‎ 2015-2019 and five years strategic plan that offers both an integrated and comprehensive approach to address a range of drug related issue being implemented by all ministries, departments and agencies working on drug control.

He stated that, “according to WHO latest estimates for 2015, psychotic drug use cost more than 450,000 deaths every year. The drug attributable disease but accounts for about 1.5 per cent of the global burden of disease and injecting drug accounts for an estimated 30 per cent of new HIV infection outside sub-Saharan Africa and contributes significantly to the epidemics of Hepatitis B and C in all regions of the world.”

Osinbajo stated: “At this juncture, I want to commend the NDLEA, United Nations Office on Drug and Crime, the European Union who jointly supported the Government of Nigeria ‎to conduct the first national household survey on drug use and health, as well as the national survey of problem of drug use in Nigeria .

“I’m told the report of the two-year survey ‎would be out before the end of the year, and would provide evidence-based information on the quantum, pattern of drug use in the country, as well as the pattern of ‎IUDs drug use including poly drug use, injective drug use and other risky behaviours for informed policy formulation and implementation,

“These include; drug supply and drug demand reduction as well as control of illicit substances, based on international drug control convention and in line with principles of balance approach to drug control,” Osinbajo added.

He emphasised that ‎government was committed to supporting efforts to preventing drug use and effective drug control.

Earlier, ‎the Chief Executive Officer,‎ National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Col. Muhammad Abdallah (rtd), said the agency would build a standard rehabilitation centre in Abuja.

This he said would help in filling the yearning gap in rehabilitating youths that had fallen needlessly by the way side ‎back into the society.
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“At the moment, there isn’t a single standard rehab centre in Nigeria. Even as the youths make up between 60 and 70 per cent of its population and indeed constitute the vulnerable group, who after falling by the way side, must be rehabilitated and re-integrated into the larger society.

“It is to fill this yearning gap ‎that the NDLEA is proposing to build a standard rehabilitation centre in Abuja for a start and other locations later. The Minister of Federal Capital Territory has assured that land will be made available,” he added.