To what length can the youth be trusted with the salvation of the nation’s bleak future? The question has become pertinent in the light of findings that a great number of the nation’s youths are turning into hard drug addicts.
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mallam Sanusi Lamido, might have seen through this when he recently proposed that any Nigerian seeking to occupy a public office should first be subjected to drug tests.
In the past, consumption of hard drugs, particularly Indian hemp, was done in hiding. In those days, those who indulged in the act moved far away from the prying eyes of security agents and family members to avoid arrest or rejection by the society, which generally resented the habit. Parents and family members made conscious efforts to dissuade their children from engaging in such acts for fear of the stigma it would bring on them.
Today, the story has changed. At motor parks, brothels, streets and institutions of higher learning where future leaders are expected to emerge, hard drugs have become like regular meals without which there would be no life.
Checks at a community, a lecherous environment along Lagos/Badagry Expressway, showed that some young people, male and female, live on hard drugs. A visitor to the area does not need to be told the kind of business that the residents engage in; their appearance says it all. They look dingy, brutal and frightening. The females wear all kinds of tattoo on their bodies while the males happily expose sizeable scars on their bodies.
From every corner of the area ooze all kinds of unpleasant smells, with smokes from thickly wrapped Indian hemp pervading the air. It is simply a way of life for many of the young and the old residents of the area.
A set of commercial sex workers in the area, called Dan Gbana (daughters of hard drug), specialise in taking heroin and go about their business without having their bath for days. A trader named Angela in the area said the Dan Gbana girls could sleep with any man for as little as N100 if they lack the resources to buy drugs.
She said: “This is another world entirely. It is not possible for a child to be brought up here and he would not take hard drugs, which come in different forms. The area is predominantly populated by people from a particular state in the North. It is home to many people of questionable character because they come to patronise the commercial sex workers that operate here.
“Here, both the old and the young are involved in prostitution and also indulge in all kinds of hard drugs that are sold here. It is also a common sight to find a nursing mother hustling for ‘customers’ without minding what happens to her baby. They often do all this under the influence of hard drugs and liquors. They take hard drugs and wash them down with strange liquor drinks.
“The prostitutes are of different categories, but the deadliest of them is the Dan Gbana group. They are brutal and often dispossess men who sleep with them of their valuables. They are called dan gbana because they consume a lot of gbana, the Yoruba word for hard drugs. They consume it as if their lives depend on it and would not even have their bath for days.
“They become restless if they stay for some time without taking hard drugs. If they become so broke that they do not have a dime to buy drugs, they could sleep with anybody for as low as N100 in order to get money to buy the drugs.”
Findings revealed that the population of drug addicts is growing in geometric proportion as hard drug business continues to thrive. Indeed, the consumption of Indian hemp and skunk is fast becoming a status symbol at motor parks and among street children. It was gathered that some of addicts even go into contests to determine the best consumers of hard drugs among them.
A bus conductor, who gave his name simply as Tairu, says it is impossible for most of his colleagues to do without hard drugs because of the harassment they face in the course of duty.
He said: “It is difficult to do transport business without the help of hard drugs. We face a lot of harassment from passengers, security men, LASTMA and agbero (touts). You can’t deal with these people without being tipsy. In fact, you need to be high in order to tackle them without fear.
“Once they see that your eyes are very thin and red, they would not need anybody to tell them that you are operating on a different planet. The drugs, particularly Indian hemp, also help our voices because it is not easy to shout from morning till night without being aided by drugs.”
Although he admitted that many of his colleagues have suffered health (mental) challenges as a result of hard drugs, he was quick to blame such situations on poor diets.
He said: “Many of our people have become kolomental (mad) after taking some of these hard drugs. The reason is that they don’t eat well before taking them. If you don’t eat well before taking them, you will be adversely affected.”
Asked if some of his colleagues also take hard drugs in order to commit crime, he said: “ I don’t know about that. I have simply told you why I take them. Everybody has his reasons for doing what he does.”
Findings showed that the consumption of hard drugs has also become a sort of competition among addicts in some areas like Ikorodu, Lagos, where a whole building is said to be dedicated to the sale and consumption of hard drugs.
Alhaji Jimoh, a resident of the area, lamented that the residents’ complaints to security agents had yielded no fruits. “I wonder what the future of this country would be with the rate at which the youth are now addicted to hard drugs. Here at Ojogbe in Ikorodu, there is a whole building devoted to the sale and consumption of all manner of hard drugs. I learnt that its users are ranked according to how much hard drug they are capable of consuming, and they are always competing to be the best. This is dangerous.
“We have complained to security agents, made radio announcements and taken all necessary measures, but it all seems fruitless. Their number seems to be growing every day in spite of our complaints. Unfortunately, females are also part of this unholy lifestyle. Something needs to be done because it contributes to the incidence of criminal activities in the country and also casts a thick cloud on the future of the nation.
Residents of Ipodo, a part of Ikeja reputed for a thriving hard drug market, also expressed concern that the lives of many promising young people, including those of girls, were being destroyed by their addiction to hard drugs.
A resident of Awolowo Way, Ikeja, Lagos, who identified himself simply as Jimmy, observed that many young people in the area had sacrificed their future on the altar of drug addiction.
Jimmy said: “The future of many young people in this area has been destroyed by drugs. Many of them have become junkies. They often call it elubo (the Yoruba word for yam flour). So, when you hear young men say they want to go and buy elubo, they are talking about hard drugs and not yam or cassava flour.
“Do you know who junkies are? They are guys who have almost become crazy because of their incurable addiction to hard drugs. They cannot do without it in a day. When some of them have no money to buy the drugs, they deposit their phones, laptops and other valuables to get them on credit. There are times that some of them go there in expensive shoes but end up returning home in bathroom slippers, having used their shoes to take hard drugs on credit.
“The dealers always make sure that the value of whatever item they deposit is more than the amount of drugs they take, because most of them would prefer to continue to use it to take more hard drugs until they exhaust it. That is one of the reasons there is a steady rise in crime.
“In spite of this, many young people are getting hooked on it every day. They celebrate it as if it is a good thing.
“There is a wealthy and renowned publisher of a popular romance magazine in this country who has almost gone bankrupt because of his addiction to hard drug. He is always here to consume drugs. He has sold so many of his landed properties as a result of this. There was a time he had to vacate his house to live in a hotel for a long time, after which he could not pay the bills. It became a serious issue between him and the owners of the hotel.
“When his addiction to hard drug started taking a serious toll on him, he began to look very unkempt.”
Confirming the publisher’s story, another resident, who gave his name as Ben, lamented the harm that hard drugs have done to many young people in the area. He feared that if nothing urgent was done to discourage the youth from taking drugs, the future of the country could be the worse for it.
He said: “The story of the publisher is true. I know him very well. I was one of the people he took abroad for relaxation when his magazine was making waves. He is not the only person that has been destroyed by addiction to hard drugs in this area. There are uncountable youths who have had their promising future destroyed by their addiction to hard drugs. One of them is a young man whose father was a popular car dealer before he died.
“After his father’s demise, he was lured into taking hard drugs. Today, he has become a junkie. He washes cars for people to get money to buy hard drugs. After toiling all day to get money, he goes to the drug joints to lavish it. How many of them would you count?”
He recalled that hard drug business found its way into Ikeja area a few decades ago through a late retired soldier. He said: “I don’t know how hard drugs business started in other parts of Lagos, but I know how it started here in Ikeja. It was one late soldier (name withheld) who started the business. He succeeded in training many people who joined his children in continuing the business after his death.
“Their operational base is still here in Ipodo. Some of his boys have continued to move to other parts of Ikeja to expand the business. That is why hard drug business has extended to other parts of Ikeja. This portends serious danger to the future of the country, because when the youth, who are supposed to be the leaders of tomorrow, now take pleasure in drug addiction, the level of criminal activities in the society will multiply and the country would be worse for it.”
A visit to Akerele, another drug market in Agege area, revealed that the business was still thriving in spite of a recent raid of the area by men of National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA). One of the young traders told our correspondent that it is not possible for anyone to stop the business in the area.
He said: “Cats (security agents) are always coming to raid us rats. But no matter how much they try, they can never stop us from doing our business. The people behind this business are not poor people; they are rich and highly connected people. But they use people like us to market it. I have been arrested and released several times.
“It is an international business and Nigeria is a re-routing nation for them. The dealers from countries like Colombia, Mexico, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and so on, bring the drugs to their agents here for re-routing to other parts of the world. They exploit the porous nature of our security system to smuggle these drugs into the country. Have you asked yourself how these hard drugs that we don’t produce in the country are everywhere like common edibles in spite of all the security bodies at the airports, sea ports and the borders?
“Apart from serving as a re-routing ground, they also intend to make Nigeria a big market because we have a large population that can serve as a big market for these hard drugs. They are succeeding because some boys are consuming them like food. It is not the headache of a dealer that anybody becomes junkie, because nobody is forced to take drugs. You can only be lured and it is left for you to accept or reject them.
“At times, some guys use their valuables as deposit to get hard drugs on credit. Was it the dealer that asked such guys to do so? It is about using what you have to get what you want.”
The Public Relations Officer of NDLEA, Mr Jarikre Ofoyeju, said the agency had not rested on its oars in its bid to check the menace of hard drugs in the country. He said: “As a result of training, exchange of intelligence with our international collaborators and years of accumulated experience on the field, the agency has been able to uncover several new modes of drug concealment adopted by drug barons.
“The first seizures of heroin, hidden in tiny threadlike manner and woven in woollen rug carpets, were made in 2012. The consignment, which was intercepted at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Lagos was sent from Pakistan as unaccompanied cargo.
“Another seizure of heroin from Pakistan, which was intercepted at the Lagos Airport, was hidden inside cartons of football. The weight of both seizures was 29.260kg. The largest seizure of heroin in 2012 was hidden in heavy steel moulding machines, which were cut open by industrial welders to access the drugs.
“This illicit shipment also came from Pakistan through the Tin Can Island Port, Lagos. There was the case of a 48-year-old widow who concealed 66 wraps of methamphetamine weighing one kilogramme in her private part. It is the largest drug concealment in private part in the country. She was to board a Kenyan Airways flight to Nairobi when she was apprehended.
“The agency detected 2.472kg of cocaine industrially concealed inside ear rings, buttons, necklaces, bangles as well as in female belts imported from Brazil. The agency detected 2.665kg of cocaine hidden inside prepared chicken imported from Brazil. A South African lady was found with 5.5kg of methamphetamine industrially packed in sardines. In addition, a 65-year-old grandmother concealed 1.740kg of cocaine in herbal syrups on her way to London. These are several methods used by drug traffickers in smuggling drugs, which the agency promptly detected.
“In 2012, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) adopted various measures that led to the destruction of 1,404.27 hectares of cannabis farms. This is to prevent the supply of cannabis to dealers and drug addicts. A total of 8,052 suspected drug traffickers were arrested and invited for interrogation. These comprised 7,510 males and 542 females.
“We successfully intercepted a total of 233,699.875kg of narcotics. The seizures include 228,794.13kg of cannabis, 3,905.447kg of psychotropic substances, 461.15kg of ephedrine, 211.325kg of heroin, 176.55kg of methamphetamine, 131.888kg of cocaine and 19.385kg of amphetamine.
“The emerging threat of clandestine laboratories is an area where the NDLEA has demonstrated its resolve to dismantle drug trafficking syndicates. In the past two years, the agency has worked very hard to prevent drug barons from using the country in illegal drug production. This has led to the discovery and closure of five clandestine laboratories used for the production of methamphetamine.
“Methamphetamine is a class ‘A’ psychotropic substance in the category of Amphetamine Type Stimulants (ATS). Four of these illicit drug production factories were discovered in Lagos, while the fifth laboratory was detected in Nanka village, Anambra State. Some of the seizures made during our raid operations include 461.15kg of ephedrine, 176.55kg of methamphetamine and 19.385kg of amphetamine.
“The agency apprehended a suspected Colombian drug kingpin who was invited to establish clandestine laboratories in the country. He was placed on $38,000 per week salary by a local drug cartel. This is an indication that amphetamine production is indeed a big threat to the country. The target of the NDLEA is to have a society free from drugs, crime and insecurity. No effort will be spared in actualising these objectives.”
He, however, said that the fight against hard drugs by the Agency had not been without challenges.
He said: “Drug control, like other human endeavours, is not free from challenges. There are challenges of inadequate funding. We need operational vehicles and more logistic support. Narcotic and money laundering investigation is expensive. There is also the challenge of inadequate drug enlightenment. This is also capital intensive.
“We are assessing the various geo-political zones and to develop suitable preventive enlightenment. Some people see drug trafficking as a business and not a crime. This is a misconception that needs to be corrected. There is also an erroneous notion of get rich quick irrespective of the means. Besides, there is the problem of moral decadence that places emphasis on materialism.
“We shall continue to promote public interest and protect the country from the activities of drug barons. The regular arrests and seizures at the airports, seaports, land borders and within towns are sufficient proof of our determination and commitment towards a drug-free society. We shall continue to frustrate the activities of drug cartels through similar efforts.”
