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President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, on Tuesday, commended
the BBC Africa, ‘Africa Eye’ documentary ‘Sweet Sweet Codeine’ that
details the widespread prevalence of drug and substance abuse in Nigeria.
In a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Sanni Onogu, Saraki stated
that documentaries like ‘Sweet Sweet Codeine’ are real-life attestations
on the need for Nigeria to take its drug abuse problem more seriously.
“The widespread nature of this substance abuse problem in Nigeria is why
the Senate convened the stakeholder Roundtable in Kano in December,” the
President of the Senate said, “Even though I have been working on this
issue for a few months now, watching the BBC documentary was another
eye-opener. Nigerians can now see that if care is not taken, we could be
sitting on a catastrophe. We cannot all just fold our arms and expect this
issue to fix itself. This is everybody’s problem.
“As things stand, following the Roundtable on Drug Abuse that held in Kano
in December 2017, we have already developed a draft Legislative framework
for the control of narcotics and psychotropic substances and the provision
of mental health and substance abuse services in Nigeria.
“With the Drug Control Bill that we are set to introduce, the mandate of
the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and the National Agency
for Food and Drug Administration Control (NAFDAC) and other relevant law
enforcement and other regulatory bodies will be strengthened to eradicate
the illicit production, and trafficking of controlled substances.
“While the Mental Health Bill will ensure the availability of mental
health and substance abuse services in every state, as well as guarantee
the enforcement of minimum standards of care for people with mental health
disorders.
“This is because, we cannot continue like this. We cannot continue to have
one psychiatrist for every 1.6million Nigerians and expect this substance
abuse problem to go away. This legislative framework that we are preparing
recognizes the low number of mental health practitioners in the country,
and works to rectify that problem by ensuring that quality mental health
and substance abuse services are available for this underserved segment of
the population.”
Watch video of Senate’s work on Drug Abuse here: