The Junior Chamber International, JCI Aso, and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency have called for stronger community-based action against substance abuse and drug addiction, warning that prevention and early sensitisation must take centre stage in Nigeria’s fight against the scourge.
They made the call on Saturday in Kubwa, Abuja, during the 2026 JCI Aso Project Save A Soul, themed, “Stronger Body, Stronger Mind, Stronger Nation,” where stakeholders urged the Federal Government, parents and communities to intensify efforts to prevent young people from falling into drug abuse.
The 2026 President of JCI Aso, Peter Emmanuel Yilbiem, said the project was designed to provide communities with the information and knowledge needed to identify, prevent and respond to substance abuse.
He said the organisation partnered with the NDLEA and other stakeholders because the consequences of drug abuse affected not only users but their families and communities.
“Junior Chamber International Aso is here for the 2026 Project Save Soul. And our message today is a conversation on how to prevent the abuse of drugs and other illicit substances,” Yilbiem said.
He added that the engagement was deliberately community-focused because people surrounding drug users often felt helpless about how to intervene.
“The person that is consuming the drug has a parent.
“The people that are around the person that is involved in consumption of drugs, they always feel helpless,” he said.
According to him, the project was aimed at empowering such people with the right information to engage drug users and help them seek appropriate support.
He said the campaign would also ensure that young people understood the dangers associated with consuming illicit substances.
Yilbiem urged the Federal Government to provide stronger support for agencies such as the NDLEA, saying government backing remained critical to winning the fight.
“The organisations like the NDLEA, they are doing a lot, but they still need the support of government to be able to do more,” he said.
He also called for the drug abuse conversation to move beyond closed-door engagements and become a mainstream national issue.
“It cannot be a conversation in small rooms alone.
“Yes, the impact begins in little rooms, but we want it to be a big conversation, a mainstream conversation, because we are all important in this fight against substance abuse,” he said.
Speaking at the sensitisation programme, an Assistant Superintendent of Narcotics at the NDLEA National Headquarters, Pascal Iwegbu, said the agency was taking its anti-drug message to schools, religious centres and communities.
“We’re in partnership with NGOs such as this JCI programme and other NGOs. The message simply is taken to the grassroots: schools, religious places, communities like this, telling them about the dangers of drug abuse,” Iwegbu said.
He identified ignorance, peer pressure, curiosity and environmental factors among the reasons people become involved in drug abuse.
But he warned that illicit substances could have serious consequences for users.
“The message simply is: these things are so, so, so dangerous to your health. Stop this drug abuse,” he said.
Iwegbu also appealed to residents to report drug dealers operating in their communities rather than shielding them.
“And you know people that are dealing in these substances in your communities? Why cover them? Report them to the appropriate authorities, like the NDLEA is there,” he said.
He disclosed that the NDLEA had also introduced an alternative development programme aimed at encouraging people involved in the cultivation of illicit drugs to embrace legitimate agricultural ventures.
According to him, the pilot scheme in Ondo State provides participants with seedlings, fertilisers, sprayers, equipment and cash capital to cultivate legitimate crops.
He said the initiative had started producing positive results, with beneficiaries returning to share testimonies of improved livelihoods.
Iwegbu also charged parents to take greater responsibility for monitoring their children, especially against the backdrop of economic hardship and peer influence.
“Simple. Talk to your children. You catch them young,” he said.
He warned parents against exposing children to drug use or other harmful behaviours in the home.
“Some of them do this in front of their children. What are you exhibiting? Are you expecting them to become better citizens, better ambassadors when you are doing these things in their presence?” he asked.
The guest speaker, Amb. Kenneth Anetor, Executive Director of Newton International Foundation and Head of Strategy, Innovation and Finance for the Presidential Special Committee for Elimination of Social Vices in Secondary and Tertiary Institutions, expressed concern over the mentality surrounding drug use in some communities.
Anetor said the situation was particularly alarming after hearing that a young boy believed drugs could give him the energy needed to work.
“It shows the current mentality of the community members, and it’s quite an alarm,” he said.
According to him, the development demonstrated the urgent need for increased prevention, sensitisation and community engagement.
He said Nigeria must not wait until people became addicted before investing in solutions.
“Yes, there’s call for addressing the issues concerning people using drugs and rehabilitation centres, but it is wise that we begin to start to invest in prevention and in sensitisation,” Anetor said.
He added, “The evidence is clear. It’s time to invest in prevention.”
Anetor linked drug abuse with wider social problems, including insecurity and violence, warning that the consequences could threaten the country’s future.
“If this young boy feels that using drugs is so that he can have energy to work, it shows that our future is in danger,” he said.
He urged the government to strengthen funding for drug demand reduction, prevention and sensitisation programmes.
Anetor also called for more support for organisations such as JCI that take anti-drug campaigns directly to communities.
He said increased funding for the NDLEA and rehabilitation centres was important but should be matched with stronger preventive interventions.
Meanwhile, the Chairperson of the 2026 Project Save A Soul, JCI Aso, Engr. Rosemary Echeune Onuh, described the initiative as an advocacy campaign designed to sensitise youths and communities on the dangers of drug abuse and addiction.
She said the project was particularly important because drug abuse was already visible in some communities.
“The project is an advocacy project. We’re here to sensitise the community, especially the youths of this community, on the dangers of drug abuse, substance abuse and drug addiction,” Onuh said.
She expressed hope that parents who attended the programme would transfer the lessons learnt to their children.
“We don’t have our target audience here today, we have our mothers and a few of the little, little ones present. We’re hopeful that at the end of the day, the parents are able to communicate whatever they learn today to their children,” she said.
Onuh commended the NDLEA for its efforts but called for greater community sensitisation, advocacy and education.
“NDLEA, they can come into play in the benefit and the growth of every community in Nigeria by maybe sensitising community leaders, community youths, and also families and just the community at large,” she said.
A beneficiary of the programme, Rhoda Oviritsa, blamed inadequate parental supervision for much of the exposure of children to harmful substances.
She said the family remained the first institution responsible for shaping a child’s character and choices.
“I personally strongly believe that this drug abuse, the root of it, is mainly for the parents,” Oviritsa said.
She urged parents to pay closer attention to their children’s friends, behaviour, moral upbringing and activities.
According to her, failure to monitor children could expose them to peer pressure and substances without their parents’ knowledge.
“If you bring the children up in such a way that you don’t care about what they take, you don’t care about the type of friends they follow, you don’t care about their moral upbringing, you don’t care about their religious upbringing, you don’t even care about the friends they move with,” she said.
Oviritsa warned that parents who failed to provide proper guidance could eventually find themselves dealing with behavioural problems that had become difficult to reverse.
She therefore urged parents to become more observant and actively involved in the upbringing of their children.
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