Kano state governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje urges the society not under estimates the consequences of drug abuse and illicit trafficking and stresses the need for measures to provide help users give up addiction.
To this end, he urges anti-drug initiatives that involves aggressive public education, more define laws and fostering greater cooperation to countering the menace.
In his message on the International Day Against Drug Abuse, the governor, via a statement issued by the commissioner for Information, Malam Muhammad Garba notes that the theme of this year’s observance: “Better Knowledge for Better Care” is apt considering that the public is largely not fully aware of the social implication of drug abuse.
He urges aggressive mainstream and social media campaign against drug abuse in order to bring to fore the impact of the threat that is endangering not only lives, but the economies of some countries.
The governor says since inception the administration has instituted programmes aimed at curtailing abuse of drugs and use of hard drugs which include setting up and streamlining the activities of the state Task Force on Drug Abuse which intercepted and destroyed illicit drugs worth over one billion naira.
Others, he adds are plans to establish the state Drug Administration Agency which is underway to battle addiction, introduction of compulsory drug test for political appointees, civil servants and students seeking admission into the tertiary institutions.
Ganduje also commends the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for choosing Kano to host its North West zonal Office and appointment of the Special Adviser to the Governor on Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs), Habeeb Yahaya Hotoro as its coordinating focal person all in recognition of the state government’s relentless war against drug abuse.
