Prof. Mrs Chinedum Peace Babalola, Vice Chancellor of Chrisland University, Abeokuta said drug abuse can be eradicated in Nigeria if the federal government strengthens regulatory bodies in Nigeria.
She stated that, ‘‘embargo on codeine is like a preliminary, as it is an emergency that needs emergency treatment. Nigerians should make the embargo effective, we should support good regulatory surveillance. Without codeine and tramadol, Nigerians will survive. There are other cough syrups that do not have codeine and can treat the symptoms of cough.’’
Prof. Babalola emphasised that, the ban is a step out of many because not only drugs are abused and there are other ways to curb the abuse. ‘‘Everyone must come on board; socio-responsibility, public health, there are so many things involved in curbing drug abuse.’’
She explained that, Nigeria have a weaker regulatory system than developed Countries. ‘‘We are not doing badly because we have the NAFDAC, NDLEA and PCN, they are all regulatory organs that can help in controlling access to drugs. However, when there are problems, we list the different solutions and approach the problems according to importance and effectiveness. As substances are banned, access should also be looked into.
We need to strengthen the regulatory bodies because if we don’t, they will be ineffective even if they are working hard. We have a large population so we need to strengthen the regulatory organs to match the population. Federal government needs to look at these bodies, know their gaps and strength, do analysis, to control access not only on drug abuse, fake drugs and other things that gets into this country easily which are not good for our health. A lot of effort should be paid to regulatory bodies that we have, that is another way. Banning, strengthening the regulatory system, strengthening awareness are all part of the solutions. Learning and Teaching are also tools we can use to sensitize people in the society.
500ml of Tramadol is not for human consumption because normal human beings uses 25ml. FG can also ban manufacturers producing more than 25ml and regulatory should be strengthened so that it would not be produced here or imported in the country.’’
The Vice Chancellor said a curriculum on drug abuse is being worked upon presently and it will be submitted to relevant bodies.
‘‘In 2003, I designed a curriculum in UI called drugs and mankind. It is one of the courses every student have access to. Am developing it and once am done I will give it out to relevant bodies to serve as awareness through teaching. We can also develop curriculum for primary, secondary and tertiary students. These are tools we can use to curb drug abuse in our country.’’