Special Report: How a Woman’s “Burden of Shame” Answers to Nothing, as Nigeria fights its Drug Problems in the Dark 

By Olajide Adelana 

Friday, October 19, Joyce Odiba just came back from the Force Headquarters in Abuja and she was not excited about the decision she was about to make: to commit her son, Stanley, to prison so she can sleep with both eyes closed. 

Stanley, who is in his late 20s, is an addict. He needs help. So does his mother who is cringing under the burden of shame a junkie brings to their family. But asking the police for help was a no-no.  

“After the discussion I had at the Force Headquarters, I know they could waste his life if he…,” said Odiba. “They can’t tolerate him.” 

Though illiterate, Odiba, whose name has been changed to protect her privacy, knows police cells are no place to straighten a life warped by drugs. She said she had taken Stanley somewhere where they worked on him, and he stopped doing drugs for some months. 

“He went back to school and relapsed.” she said. Her frustration has been mounting ever since.  

 “For more than three months now, I can’t enter my house. He just wants to kill me, “she said. Although, there are rehab centres in Kaduna, Ibadan and Oyo where she could have taken Stanley for help but neighbours advised her not to go to the Kaduna rehab centre because it is not safe. 

Despite the war against drug trafficking and abuse, drug problems does not seem to be abating in Nigeria. Recently, the government have had to ban the sale of Codeine,  

 Statistics by NARCONON, an international drug support organization, show that in 1999, 16,000 kilograms of cannabis herb and 15.6kg of cocaine were seized; in 2000, the figure rose to 272,000 kg of cannabis and 54kg of cocaine. In the middle of this, is the dearth of rehabilitation centres which is important in reducing the rate of drug addiction in the country. 

But when it comes to rehabilitation, there are many issues involved. As in the case of Odiba, security is just one of the problems. Scarcity is another. No one knows exactly how many centres are in the country –just as there are no statistics on the total number of addicts that have undergone rehabilitation over the years. 

But as of 2004, over 900 drug abuse victims were rehabilitated in Nigeria, says NARCONON. Back then, Nigeria’s population was about 140 million. Now, with the size hovering around 180 million, drug addicts will be numbering in their thousands.  

 And for this swelling population, which rehab experts believe comprises between 40 to 70 percent of Nigerians suffering from drug abuse directly or indirectly, there are no enough facilities. 

Apart from the centres in Kaduna, Kano, Ibadan, Lagos, and those established by NGOs and churches, numbering 10 in all, not many of the remaining facilities are functional enough to be known. 

Even those in use, for lack of competence and priority, keep churning out many Stanleys after a few months or so in rehab. To Prisca Lassen, an expert in mental health, the Nigerian situation is just like there are no rehab centres at all. Lahssen is the president of the African Mental Health Awareness and Care Initiatives in Nigeria.  

 She understands the terrain, and how lack of expertise turns rehab centres to a dangerous place for drug addicts. “One of the mistakes we make is that we combine psychiatric wards with rehabilitation centres,” said Lassen.  

 “These are two different things. And to worsen things, the victims are stigmatized. Twice. They are stigmatized because of the addiction, and because they are admitted to psychiatry.”  

 She said stigmatization actually prevents many victims from seeking help. And when they do that, society brings pressure to bear on them. Stanley has not seen the need to seek help, but his mother, ashamed and worried, drags him all about to seek healing and freedom for herself.  

 “This is not possible until Stanley understands that he needs help,” she added.  

 NGOs and faith-based organizations are also guilty of this: pressuring victims. They even give the addicts hope of redemption, a change of life motivated by faith. “This is not entirely true,” said Lassen. “Because there is a lot of incompetence in the practice, victims hope and believe, and then reality strikes that there’s no magical solution to drug problem.” 

 If anything, this is a dangerous lie. According to experts including Lassen, when a victim’s faith is pumped full, and he stops doing drugs, there’s danger lurking around the corner. Stanley, according to his mother, got violent after he stopped taking hard drugs for a couple of months. Withdrawal, Lahssen said, is not what you can come out of on a click of the finger. It is not that easy. 

 “What we have to look at is what this withdrawal does to the brain,” she said. 

 Not many of those managing rehab centres understand this progression whose management is largely guided by standards –international ones.  

 First of all, Lassen said, drug-abuse victims should not be shackled. “They have to volunteer to go and receive treatment,” she continued. “Or else it won’t work.” And on checking in, there should be a sort of welcome. A committee is there to assess and profile the newcomer. The idea is to understand and see that there are no factors –depression, mental health, injuries, and others-–leading the victim to drug abuse.

According to her, the profile of a person that comes to depend on a drug for back pains will be different from another victim taking Codeine on the street. “Assessment is always the starting point,” the expert added. The committee then makes him feel welcome and secure, making him understand the whole programme. 

The facility will have amongst others a withdrawal unit, staffed with experts who supervise the process. “The withdrawal process of steroid is different from that of alcohol and people could die in that process,” said Lahssen.  

 The last stage of the procedure is therapy. This addresses the root. “If you don’t look at why you got into this addiction, you will definitely relapse.” she said. 

 All of this happens when there is competence. But that also depends on facilities. Many neuro-psychiatrists believe if there is no difference in the environment where the victim picks the habit and where the rehab centre is situated, there will be no progress. In fact it doesn’t require any expertise to know this. Odiba knows this too. That is why she is looking for a place where Stanley can be “absent from all these useless counselors and drug companies”.  

Lahssen complained that most of the rehab homes she has visited so far have no facilities to create a change and this is sadly the case nationwide. “There’s no equipment, no resources, no decent place where victims can stay for three months or more; there are no activities,’ she said. 

 Regrettably, the situation would not change until government begins to take responsibility. The expert calls the absence of this, denial. And she blames the government. There are centres that are competent but cannot function optimally due to paucity of funds.  

 But deep down beneath the cold shoulders government gives drug rehabilitation is lack of love. This love, according to Lassen, encompasses a lot: economy, employment, security, justice. And if nothing happens, Nigeria is in for a hard time ahead. “In fact, we are already there,’ she said. “We now have to carry on the reputation of being the poverty capital of the world when we are the richest country on the continent.”  

Lahssen was making a point of denial by the government. But it is not only the government trying to bend reality. Victims, their relatives, NGOs also are. And it does not have to do with faith but making the addict understand how and why he needs help. The absence of this has never helped any victim kick narcotics. Not even Stanley who started smoking at 16.

For now, everyone is fighting in the dark. 

*This report was supported by the Code for Africa’s WanaData programme 

*Additional reporting by Olusegun Elijah and Joy Jaiyesimi