President Tinubu Unveils ‘Save Our Families’ Initiative to Combat Nigeria’s Drug Crisis

• President Bola Tinubu launched the “Save Our Families” (SOF) campaign to combat drug abuse in Nigeria.
• The campaign, led by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), focuses on early detection through home drug testing kits, encouraging families to test their children regularly.
• Tinubu emphasized that investing in prevention is a prudent way to safeguard the future, as it empowers individuals, promotes healthy lifestyles, and creates resilient communities.

Newsypeople- “Save Our Families” campaign to stem the drug abuse crisis in Nigeria has been launched by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The project, which is anchored by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), is based on the identification of drug users at an early stage using the home drug testing kits and promoting the tradition of doing home tests on the children.

On Wednesday at the State House Conference Centre in Abuja, President Tinubu, represented by George Akume the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, launched the SOF campaign that coincided with the day of the United Nations International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Drug Trafficking (World Drug Day).

As the Special Guest of Honour, President Tinubu restated his government’s resolve against the ravages of drug abuse and illicit trafficking and laid stress on the need to focus on the solution of prevention to address the worldwide challenge of drug abuse.

“Prevention not only saves lives, but also saves resources that would otherwise be spent on treatment and rehabilitation. Prevention is a sensible strategy for the coming years as it involves the members of the community making well-informed decisions endorsing a healthy lifestyle and builds the less resilient communities that would be immune to the drug assaults,”

the President exclaimed.

Tinubu was encouraged by the efforts of NDLEA to curtail the consumption of addictive substances and the prevention of the drug abuse in Nigeria. He requested all of all the Nigerians including religious leaders and traditional leaders, educational institutions, opinion leaders as well as civil society organizations to lend their helping hand to the NDLEA’s “War Against Drug Abuse” (WADA) initiative.

He stressed that the SOF campaign is about making home drug testing by parents a trend, which will inevitably become a check on potential drug users even if the intention is to experiment. President Tinubu brought out that the NDLEA is serious about drug prevention being in the middle of its strategy. He added that it is more effective and less expensive to prevent drug abuse than to provide rehabilitation and other services that are needed when the problem occurs.

Marwa cleared that the NDLEA has come up with a “Drug Integrity Test” program, which will be used in school by students, prospective tertiary institution students and those who want to return, public and private sector workers, interested politicians, and potential partners in a relationship. The test kits which have 15 substances and are capable of finding these live test kits are now distributed across all the NDLEA field commands all over the country in the homes, schools, and workplaces.

“Actually, it is not only the early warning of drug abuse, particularly among our young generation which is the means to get help by treatment, it will also create some deterrent effect,”

Marwa added.

It is the launching of the “Save Our Families” campaign that puts sign on President Tinubu’s unwavering commitment to resolving Nigeria’s drug abuse issue and delivers the country’s children from the dire consequences of drugs.

See the news below..

Tinubu Launches “Save Our Families” Campaign Against Drug Abuse https://t.co/BEnArpdgze pic.twitter.com/r6X47gyEbh

— THEWILL NEWSPAPER (@THEWILLNG) June 27, 2024

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