Northern Youths and the Malaise of Drug Addiction
By Lawan Bukar Maigana
After watching a Hausa video from Kano State a few days ago on different social media platforms, I was deeply saddened to witness a young man confessing to security officials how he fatally stabbed and murdered his father.
Saying he committed the act “out of love for him,” forced tears out of my eyes.
The most heartbreaking part was when he acknowledged his father’s care, provision, education, and immense love towards him, expressing that he killed him to ensure his father’s peaceful rest in heaven.
When asked about his name by the interrogator, he confidently said, ” My name is Abu Kasim Bin Ya’u Bin Ibrahim Bin Abubakar.” Surprisingly, he doesn’t even know the crime he committed before his arrest by the staff of the Nigerian Civil Security and Defense Corps (NSCDC).
While reminding him that he killed his father, he unapologetically explained that whoever is killed goes to heaven—paradise—without any questions from angels. ”I killed him and whoever kills someone will go to hellfire. I am a certified member of Hellfire but my father is a dweller of paradise, and I don’t care about the situation I will find myself in. That is not my problem.”
When asked why he didn’t kill himself, he replied saying he loves his father more than himself. ”He paid my school fees and I became a wayward person and killed him, qualifying me to be judged accordingly. We must tell the truth no matter what. I am in the know that I killed him and I will not lie to you, Officer.”
These were the words of the young man from Nigeria who killed his hard-working and promising father after getting high on hard drugs, exposing the level of crime that a drug addict can commit if he or she is high.
Similarly, I overheard a story of a young man, 21, who forcefully slept with his 17-year-old sister after being high at night, leading to her pregnancy. He said he thought he was at a hotel where he spent the night.
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Another case of drug addiction that got me thinking some months ago was a case of a man who threatened to kill his father if he cautioned him about his lifestyle.
Yesterday, I read a report by TheCable that the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, has raised concerns over the abuse of psychoactive substances among Borno’s young people, outlining fermented human urine, lizard dung, camel urine, Lipton soaked in gin, and mentholated spirits mixed with soft drinks as the most abused substances in the state, which resulted in prostitution, extortion, and other social ill-practices.
This was contained in a statement by Iliyasu Mani, the Commander of the Narcotics of the NDLEA, Maiduguri, Borno State.
He explained that some youths are inhaling toilet fumes and gutter dirt to get high and commit different kinds of crimes to the detriment of the state, aside from the ongoing insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives and businesses, leaving people poor and helpless.
Mani went on to say, “Let me categorically state here that these new psychoactive substances that are commonly abused today include cannabis sativa, skunk, cough syrup with codeine, ice, tramadol, rRohypnol diazepam, pentazocine, rubber solution, and glue,” concluding that some use 10-year-old human urine to get high.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, a household survey conducted in 2018 and reviewed in 2021, the level of substance abuse in Nigeria is at 14.3 percent which was three times higher than the 5.6 percent global average. This alone calls for action to come up with realistic and achievable ways of tackling drug addiction in the country.
Recently, one of my relatives escaped death after a botched attack by terror drug addicts at his residence in Gwange Sabon Layi in Maiduguri. They went to his house at night, attacked him with knives, and snatched his cell phones, one among the many crimes they commit daily.
This is the situation of many young people today in the North. Their addiction to hard drug consumption has already taken a frightening dimension. That is why the government must do something to arrest the dangerous situation.
Lawan Bukar Maigana writes from Borno State and can be reached via email: [email protected]
