An Assistant Commander General of Narcotics at the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Mr Momodu Idarhu, on Sunday called for the reintroduction of Annual Inter-House sports competition in primary and secondary schools to positively engage the youths and divert their attention from hard drugs consumption.
He also called for the reintroduction of the literary and debate competition among schools to further positively engage the youths.
He made the disclosure at the sideline of a one-day dialogue to tackle the menace of hard drugs consumption among the Nigerian youths.
Idarhu maintained that tackling the menace of hard drug consumption among the Nigerian youths required the contribution of all including the government, parents,the communities, traditional leaders and the opinion leaders as well as security agencies .
He emphasised that when the youths were positively engaged,their minds would not be on mundane issues such as drug consumption.
He declared, ” Those days,we
used to have evening and night preps in schools, we used to have annual inter- House sports; we used to have literary and debate competition among schools. Do we still have all these? All these are meant to positively engage our youths. We need to reintroduce them to positively engage our youths.When the youths are engaged, their minds would not be on mundane issues such as drug consumption.”
Idarhu cited cases of Anambra and Bauchi states where he once served as state Commandant.
He said because the Governors of the two states actively supported the NDLEA , in terms of logistics,the two states recorded drastic drop in the numbers of people consuming drugs there.
He said, “I could recollect when I was in Anambra and Bauchi as state Commandant. The NDLEA recorded great success there then as there was reduction in the numbers of people taking drugs there.This is because the two Governors supported the agency with logistics needed for our jobs. We took the fight to the doorsteps of the drug barons and we tackled them effectively because of the support that the two Governors gave us.”
The NDLEA boss also observed that the agency had in recent times, convicted more drug barons since Brigadier General Buba Marwa ( retd) assumed the chairmanship seat of the agency because of political will.
“The point Iam trying to raise is that the NDLEA needs the support and the encouragement of all to perform effectively. Our officers and men are ever ready and patriotic to tackle the menace of drugs in the country,” he added.
