ISSUP advocates introduction of addiction science courses in Nigerian tertiary institutions.

ISSUP advocates introduction of addiction science courses in Nigerian tertiary institutions.

Joel Oladele, Abuja

The Nigerian chapter of International Society of Substance Use Professionals(ISSUP) has called on higher institutions of learning to implement introduction of addiction science courses as part of efforts to tackle the alarming rate of drugs and substance abuse in the country.

At its 2023 National Conference and Annual General Meeting held in Abuja on Tuesday, various stakeholders gathered to analyse the causes and effects and brainstormed on the antidotes.

Addressing journalists on the conference theme “The Implementation of Addiction Science Courses in Nigerian Tertiary Educational Institutions: Prospects and Challenges” The President of the Nigerian Chapter of ISSUP, Dr Martin Agwogie urged  tertiary institutions to come on board and provide training for qualified personnel to strengthen the fight against drug addiction in Nigeria.

He noted that drug control is the responsibility of everyone even though government agencies are at the vanguard of prevention and control and urged stakeholders to collaborate for effective drug control.

“This event is about encouraging higher institutions of learning to introduce addiction studies in their education program. Nigeria as it is today is in crises of drugs and substance abuse and our higher institutions of learning cannot fold its arms and watch this crisis.

“So there is the need for them to join other stakeholders in developing an addiction program towards building the workforce because we need a workforce with adequate knowledge and skills in evidence based prevention treatment and of course supporting research activities. 

“Moreover, the higher institutions of learning need to support the Government institutions established to address the issue of drug control. Also, that drug control is a responsibility of everyone even though we have agencies of Government, even Non-governmental organizations, but everyone has a role. 

“Today, we are sending a very strong message that the Higher Institutions of learning should come on board towards supporting this institution to address the crises of drugs and substance abuse in Nigeria.” Agwogie said.

He added that there is a need for the country to have well trained professionals, in order to make their intervention evidence-based and more effective in addressing the scourge of drug abuse.

“Those on the street that we are referring to, people need to intervene and those who need to intervene are the workforce and how do they intervene? By providing prevention interventions and if they are not knowledgeable about evidence based prevention interventions, they won’t even know how to address the issue.

“It doesn’t really matter whether those who use substances are educated or not. What matters is who are those providing intervention? And you will agree with me that if you have personnels providing interventions, they also speak local languages. 

“So they come from Communities and we have this workforce that can speak the language to those using the substances and the language they are going to speak to them should be evidence inclined. We have had situations where people, in the name of providing prevention interventions, complicate issues but if you have people who are well knowledgeable about addressing drug issues, their interventions will be evidence based and it will be more effective.” He stated.

Also speaking with journalists, Dr. Akanidomo Ibanga, representing the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s(UNODC’s) Country Representative said available data on drug abuse in Nigeria calls for serious concern and there is need for stakeholders to come together to address the challenge.

“When it comes to addiction management, it involves more than just one profession because it affects many domains of a person’s life. From his schooling to his housing to his job. So, there are many domains that are affected therefore he needs many professions working together in addressing the issue of substance abuse.

“What we have as far back as 2018, by implication, that data shows that 14.4% of the population agreed to abusing drugs within the previous years. The question that raised is that going by predictions that have come between then and now, we are expecting that by 2030, there will be an increase and also we are seeing different data that point to the fact that there has been a potential increase in drug use in the country. 

“Giving where we are, that’s already an alarming statistics and when you say 14.4 percent, that is the whole country but when you look at it by state, it’s also different so we find for instance in Lagos, it’s 33 percent, in Oyo State, it’s 23.6 percent, in Gombe State, it’s 22.6 percent so it varies from State to State but whichever State you look at, it’s still higher than the world average. Meaning that we have a problem on our hands that we need to address. 

Speaking on how soon he expects Nigeria to address this, Ibanga said: “Well, Nigeria at the government level is beginning to recognize the need to have a program that deals with the problem. If you check, few years ago, we had the presidential advisory committee on this, we had the State House of Assemblies having committees on health and then a narcotic committee in order to prevent drug abuse and health sensitization programs.

“We had a Governor’s wife that went through this same program, so you will find out that at the government level, there is a recognition of the need for programming but it needs more support in terms of investing money both from government and private sectors in activities and events that could address the problem. So we commend them but looking at our situation, there is still a whole lot more that needs to be done.” 

Also at the even was, the Chairman of National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (retd) who disclosed that over twelve million Nigerians use cannabis and called on stakeholders to think outside the box in tackling the challenges.