The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, has assured the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) of the readiness of his ministry to support ongoing drug control efforts by the anti-narcotics agency especially in the areas of creating alternatives for illicit drug producers and provision of agricultural opportunities for drug users undergoing rehabilitation to prevent them from relapse.

Kyari, who gave the assurance in his response to the remarks by the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (Rtd) who led some members of his management team into a meeting with the minister and top officials of the ministry in Abuja on Thursday, raised an alarm that if nothing is done urgently by all stakeholders to tackle drug abuse, the country may be breeding criminals instead of the next generation of leaders.

Marwa had told the minister that the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu has food security and national security as part of its focus adding that ?we really cannot tackle national security without adequate attention to drug control because they are interlinked.?

He said the visit was to seek collaboration between NDLEA and the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security as part of ongoing efforts to surmount the challenge of drug scourge facing the country. He noted that out of the 14.3 million drug users in Nigeria, 10.6 million of them abuse cannabis alone, making the psychoactive substance the most commonly abused in the country.

?As you know, cannabis is not only smoked, it is also eaten. They make soup with it. They mix it with hot drinks to produce monkey tail. They take it in all kinds of forms. Every week, we make arrests. And still, they keep at it, because there?s so much money in the business. And so, we sat down and reflected and felt that there?s a more permanent solution to this, especially with the growers of cannabis.

?So, we have decided to create another platform called Alternative Development, which seeks to persuade cannabis growers to change from growing cannabis, which is illicit to something legitimate and licit. This will give them at least a legitimate source of income. They will be able to sleep with their two eyes closed. Instead of always in fear of arrest by NDLEA, they will live respectable lives with their families and their communities.

?The Alternative Development project has secured the buy-in of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs and they are willing to encourage us. But for us to tell cannabis growers, please, don?t grow cannabis, grow something else there has to be incentives for them to agree. I?ve actually had a meeting with some cannabis growers and discussed this idea with them. The fact that they agreed to come and meet me without the fear that they are being tricked so that we arrest them, was a positive sign. And we sat and had an engagement and I?ve also sent a delegation to their communities.

?This is where we need the support of the ministry to give them some inputs, seedlings, tractors, water, fertilizers, chemicals, and others. So, we looked at the possibility of getting them to grow food crops including artemisia annua plant that can fetch the country $100 billion annually. They call it sweet wormwood. The derivative is used for the treatment of malaria. We consulted with IITA; they actually confirmed that they have grown samples across the country. They have done some trials. And it seems to have a very positive outlook.

?With a $100 billion possible income to the country, if this is fully tapped, we?ll suggest that this is probably one of the areas of pharmaceutical crops that would be given to these cannabis growers to farm in addition to other licit crops.?

Marwa said the other area of collaboration is the assimilation of persons coming out of NDLEA rehab facilities into agricultural programmes and projects that will give them livelihood and prevent them from relapse. ?Now, when our children, come to us for treatment and rehabilitation, because of drugs, we treat them, and they become normal people, responsible, after the treatment. Then you throw them back again into the same environment where they got into drug abuse, they will relapse.

?So, we thought that within the scheme of this esteemed ministry, if you can assist us so that at the end of their rehabilitation they can be assimilated into some of your agricultural programmes with whatever incentives go with them so that they can be gainfully engaged.?

In his response, the minister agreed that there is a direct correlation between drug abuse and other forms of criminality, noting that if nothing is done urgently by all stakeholders the country may be breeding criminals instead of the next generation of leaders.

?So, we should join hands and this is the collaborative effort that President Tinubu has already mandated us to do in terms of not only achieving food security, employment, job creation, but improvement of livelihood, inclusivity of youth and women in agriculture, access to capital and credit, and so on and so forth.

?I would like to express our commitment to this alternative development initiative. Then, on the issue of your rehab centres, we will work with you so that those being treated can get some livelihood support in terms of tools and other things. We?re willing to partner with you on the excellent work that you?re doing?, the minister assured.

The meeting agreed to set up a technical committee that will work on the details of the collaboration (AriseNews TV, but headline rejigged)

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