Parents contributes to drug abuse of their wards--Ighodalo

Wilson Ighodalo is not a new face in drug advocacy campaign. In the last 11 years, he has been able to raise an organisation to fight drug abuse and trafficking in Nigeria but not with the conventional arrest and prosecution of offenders of the law against drug trafficking. The Edo State born International advertiser, President/Founder, of Drug Salvation Foundation and media consultant based in Abuja, Lagos, and Ghana has soft spot for the Nigerian youths and has invested much to liberate them from the shackles of drug menace through advocacy campaigns and intellectual conferences. In this interview with EMEKA IBEMERE, the former Ambrose Ali University, Ekpoma, a businessman and entrepreneur, a brand consultant, and a registered member of advertising Council of Nigeria blamed some parents in the drug life of their children. He also spoke on what motivated him into drug advocacy. ...excerpts

What motivated you to go into drug war by forming an NGO, that helps in fighting drug trafficking and abuse?

It actually started in 2003, because every day I watch television, I discovered that the agency was only talking about arrest and seizures, prosecution, and growing up, I saw that a lot of people are into drug and it has destroyed a lot of them, some of them dropped out of school, some died at their prime age due to drug related problems, I discovered and was motivated by the fact  that youths who takes drug were not doing well in their respective endeavours, some had financial set-backs, so I took it upon myself to come up with an idea which National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, bought into in 2003.

I told them that together, we can do something and that I’m into advertising world and that we can team up and fight the scourge of drug abuse and trafficking. So, they see my idea as an idea that they can buy into, so they set up PSP, which is Private Sector Partnership Initiative; but really what I was actually going for was business, so I was going into NDLEA as a media consultant with them and I was actually signed on board as their media consultant and we started working together; we started doing some programme and creating media awareness, creating billboards for them just to put them into advocacy, education and publicity. So, that was how we started.

How were you able to get NDLEA’s endorsement to partner with them?

So, it has been good. We have been able to take the fight to the next level, because along the line, I delved into drug research, abuse and other things, I started discovering that it was actually beyond what I expected it to be from the beginning and I approached my Cousin and he said, I better come up with an NGO, and that was how I set up an NGO. So when I was looking for a name, God gave me a wonderful name; Drug Salvation Foundation (DSF), and I CAME BACK TO NDLEA and told them that I have registered an NGO, and they gave me accreditation just because I have been working with them. So it was easily accredited because they came to my office to probe me and they told me the criteria I must meet to earn their accreditation and as God would have it I was able to meet their conditions, because they saw the resources and other things I must have, so that was how NDLEA gave me accreditation and since then, we have been working together.

In the last 11 years, you have been partnering with the NDLEA in advocacy project, how has it been?   

We have gone far and by the grace of God, we have done well. Again, know that we cannot do it alone. We need a lot of support from NDLEA itself. We have gone to schools to talk about drugs. We have established Drug- Free- Clubs in Schools in Nigeria. Where ever you see NDLEA commands in any state, we are there. What we added recently was the establishment of the Club in all the schools in Delta State which was supported by the First Lady of Delta State, Uduaghan. We have been organizing seminars, conferences; talk shops, where we talk drugs and its harmful effect in Lagos and outside Lagos cities. So that is how far we have gone with the advocacy project.

Having gone far in drug research, what is the factor that causes drug abuse among youths?

If you talking about drug abuse alone, there are so many factors that led to drug abuse. Even parents at home contribute to drug abuse of their wards. They encourage their children into drug abuse. Why do I say so; when you are talking about drug abuse, it starts at home because they way you train your child that is how he or she will grow with it. if you start telling your children on time about the dangers and other societal menace of drug abuse, alcohol and even stealing, there is no way that child would not imbibe good virtues. Again, do you know some parents smoke before their kids and some even go as far as sending their wards to go and buy cigarettes or India hemps for them? And what do you think such a child will grow to become in future? Other factors are pressure group. Here, parents don’t monitor who their child goes out with and when they are in the midst of the bad ones, the pressure to resist what their age mate who is on the other side of life is doing would be difficult. They will pressure you to join them in taking drugs, which you are not their standard or class, telling you that if you don’t take the drug, you don’t belong to their class. These are toxic friends coming into a child’s life and at the end of the day, they will be telling you to do what you aren’t used to do and instead of them to say no to drugs, they got hooked. So that is what we are trying to tell our youths, to say: ‘NO TO DRUGS’! 

The basic thing we are trying to do now is how to reach them so that they can be able to ‘say no to drugs’. There are so many factors we have noticed recently while the youths are going into drugs. We have noticed that for them to belong to some clubs in schools now, they must initiate that child into taking drugs. This is taking place in the Universities and we have noticed it even in secondary schools of recent. This was our observation about their clandestine way of recruit other children into taking drugs.

What is the best policy to eradicate drugs? Is it taking the drugs away by cutting the supply or...?

When you take the drugs away, they will still go back to it. Cut the supply okay but what we are trying to do now with the NDLEA is not just to say no to drugs but making and creating other things to occupy their minds. We are talking of an idle mind, get involve in bad things. So we are trying so many other ways to occupy their minds with something else. We are trying to bring in celebrities so that they the youths could be inspired to be thinking of being like those celebrities, reaching where they are without drugs and being focused in life. We are trying to motivate them with the stars, who are role models to some of these young ones to emulate their no-drug-life and stop drug abuse. With the celebrities that we are bringing on board, they would be able remodel their living.

Why not use football stars, who you know that, have great followers all over the world to attract the youths in this type of advocacy, I mean stars like Jay-Jay Okocha, Kanu Nwankwo, Victor Ikpeba and others?

That is a very good suggestion but we cannot really focus on one sector like that. A lot of people have potential ideas to do great things. I came up with this idea of celebrity awareness campaign. On 22 May, we came up with the idea through the grace of God and before now, people’s perception of NDLEA was an unfriendly organization but myself, I saw them as open-minded organization that would like to work with the society but it’s because they don’t want to come closer because of its security outfit but getting closer to them, I discovered that they are very wonderful people and some have lost their life trying to combat drug menace and they need help. Coming to the football stars, what I just did first was to bring in celebrities and the ones we have, there are footballers among them.

 We Godwin Ohanana, he specializes in football and he is a member of Celebrities Free Club. We brought people from the media, entertainment, Nollywood, film industry, music, every sector that has to do with the youths into the project. Why we bring them was to allow them to have a reach out to these youths from different sector, background and class. The Drug Salvation Foundation, with Godwin Ohanana, is planning how to infuse football into our campaign.

Soon, we will be talking about ‘KICK-OUT- DRUGS’, which is coming on board. We intend to invite Jay-Jay Okocha into the advocacy who would inspire the youths and motivate them to ‘kick- out-drugs’ away in their life and be a responsible citizens of Nigeria. The message is that instead of drugs while not go into football, so we have a lot in our project.

You seem to have a very big vision but where are you getting your funding from?

I must be sincere with you, this is the most challenging aspect of this activities. It has been our biggest challenge. It has been funded by the trustees of the Drug Salvation Foundation. Everything we have been doing, our programmes, advocacy campaigns, school to school drug education and awareness, forming of the Drug Free Clubs in secondary schools and tertiary institutions, have been funded with the paltry funds coming from the trustees.

Pastor Itua Igadalo, who is the Chairman Board of Trustees and Mr Lawal, who is also representing Malta in Nigeria, these are the specific people that have been supporting all our programmes in Nigeria in the last 11 years. But we are looking reaching out to corporate organizations. And as a media consultant and advertiser, what I have been telling the corporate world is that it has gone beyond corporate social responsibility.

I have a meeting with one Managing Director and I told him that this has gone beyond corporate responsibility, that in branding, in media, we call it cost related and it means using your cost to sale your product, because as you are supporting us, you equally selling your brands and that people would be looking at your brand as a worthy brand.

 Imaging where telecom bought this project now, because this project is about youth and if at the end of the day, the youths keyed into your brand you could imagine the market audience that would associate with that brand. So that is what we have been telling some organizations to come in and support us. So basically, we have not received any donation from any corporate organization, any individual or association so far in the project.

Where do you intend to take this organization to?

Truly, we cannot say about tomorrow but tomorrow is great. So we have a plan of taking it globally because, when you talk about drug abuse and trafficking, it’s a global issue. So we are taking it beyond Nigeria and there is this programme that we want to carry out regarding this Substance Awareness Symbol, which we launched some time ago. We are going on World Toure very soon with the campaign. We want to take the campaign beyond Nigeria, telling the world that we have arrived to fight drug abuse and trafficking. Do you know that people are selling illicit drug on social media? So the thing has gone far and we want to follow the trend to spread our message of say no to drugs. It is drug traffickers that are fuelling drug addiction and abuse. Nigeria use to be a transit country before but now it has gone beyond transit to manufacturing and consumption country. But fund has being our challenges.