Hajia Fatima Abiola-Popoola, Commander of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) Kwara State Command, has proposed that institutions require newly admitted students to take mandatory drug tests as part of the admissions process.
She added that this would act as a preventative step, while also providing early intervention and therapy to individuals who are already using drugs in order to keep them from becoming problematic users.
Hajia Abiola-Popoola made this remark at an interactive session with journalists in Ilorin, expressing concern over the country’s expanding number of drug users, particularly among females, and warning that this trend posed major risks to families and society as a whole.
She said, “According to a 2018 survey, 14.3 million people were using drugs in Nigeria, one out of 7 persons in Nigeria is a drug user, and it also revealed that one out of 4 drug users is a woman, and this shows that the society is in trouble. This is because a woman is the administrator of the home and now that women have started abusing drug, then the society is in trouble.”
Abiola-Popoola harped on the synergy with traditional rulers in the crusade against drug trafficking and abuse, stating that success in the fight depends on the support of the stakeholders at the behest of the traditional institution.
“The traditional rulers have some control over their people and they are the closest to the communities, and whenever they say a word, it almost becomes a law amongst their people who hold them in high esteem. They have a stronghold of their communities, and that is why they are very important in the fight against drug trafficking and abuse.
“We have been making use of the traditional rulers over the years. In fact, as part of our mandate and also the people that we grouped as stakeholders in the society, the traditional rulers are part of it. Because when traditional heads rise up in their respective communities against drug traffickers, their people will join them in the fight.
“In 2021, the then President, Muhammadu Buhari, launched the War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) and in launching it, all traditional rulers were represented because the aim of this WADA is community mobilization, which will be led by the traditional rulers,” she said.
Abiola-Popoola, on the other hand, urged traditional rulers to pay close attention to their communities by putting persons in strategic positions to help them acquire information about the drug situation in their communities, with the goal of inviting the NDLEA when necessary.
The commander, who had previously visited the Emir of Ilorin and Chairman of the Kwara State Council of Chiefs, Dr Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, thanked the monarch for his support for the new leadership of the agency in the state.
“The Emir of Ilorin assured us of his support and cooperation. He even promised that other traditional heads in Kwara State will support us because any community that we are going into will be informed that we are coming, and this is very important for us, and we are really grateful to the Emir,” she said.