By Mahdi Waziri Isa
The Vice-Chancellor, Federal University Lafia, Professor Muhammad Isa Kida, has raised alarm that drug abuse has spread to almost every home in the country, with hardly any family free from the menace of youth involvement in drugs.
Prof. Kida disclosed this recently in Lafia during his first Media Chat with Journalists.
According to him, available statistics and daily experiences show that drug abuse is no longer a distant problem but a household challenge affecting streets, neighbourhoods and families.
“When you look around, you will discover that the challenge of drug abuse is no longer far away. It is with us, in our streets, in our neighbourhoods and even in our homes. In almost every home today, you find a young person struggling with drugs,” he said.
The VC described the trend as alarming and destructive, warning that a generation of young Nigerians is being lost to addiction, cultism and criminality.
He linked the surge to lack of parental supervision, peer pressure, idleness, and negative influence of unregulated social media contents, adding that the situation is worse among students living off-campus in distant, unmonitored lodges where nobody checks their activities.
Prof. Kida said the university alone cannot tackle the problem and called for a collective response involving parents, community leaders, security agencies and the media.
He revealed that the university is proposing a strategic partnership with media executives, digital publishers, bloggers and professional bodies like the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, for sustained anti-drug campaigns.
He explained that the partnership would involve regular security awareness programmes, production of documentaries and flooding of campuses with powerful slogans such as _Say No to Drug Abuse, Say No to Cultism, Say No to Rape_ and _Think Before You Share_ to reshape the mindset of youths.
The Vice-Chancellor appealed to the media to use their credibility and reach to help save young people from drug addiction and other social vices, noting that messages from trusted media houses carry more weight than those from the university alone.