Chairman/Chief Executive of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, Brigadier General Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd) has asked that every member of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) should undergo mandatory drug test as they report for their statutory one year national service at the various orientation camps across the country.
Marwa spoke when he hosted the Director General of the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, Brigadier General Mohammed Fadah who led his management team on a courtesy visit to the NDLEA headquarters in Abuja on Wednesday, saying that the mandatory drug test is part of the drug demand reduction efforts of the anti-narcotic agency.
The NDLEA chief painted a picture of Nigeria’s drug problem with facts and figures from the 2018 national drug survey while calling for collective efforts to change the narrative.
According to him, “There is the need for drug test for our youth corps members as they report at the orientation camps. Once they know there’ll be drug test at the camps, they will abstain from it. The whole essence is to ensure help gets to those who test positive early. This is part of our War Against Drug Abuse, WADA, initiative.
“Nigeria has a drug issue. We’re determined to ensure this is changed but we can’t do it alone, we need organisations like NYSC to reduce and control demand for drugs. Nigeria has insufficient rehabilitation and counseling centres. We need counseling centres in the primary health care centres at the grassroots, where we don’t have enough manpower to cover and this is where the young men and women of NYSC come in. We can train them in their numbers to serve as counselors at the grassroots level because majority of drug users only need counseling.”
Speaking earlier, General Fadah said he came on the visit to appreciate NDLEA for past support to the scheme and also ask for further collaboration as NYSC prepares to open the gates of orientation camps across the country.
