NDLEA raises alarm over untreated mental illness behind drug abuse

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig.-Gen. Buba Marwa (retd.), has raised the alarm over the link between untreated mental illness and drug abuse, warning that efforts to curb substance abuse must go beyond arrests and enforcement to include access to mental health care, treatment and rehabilitation.

Marwa said this on Tuesday in Abuja while chairing the fifth edition of The Conversation Conference (TCC 5.0), themed, “The Future of Mental Health and Well-being: Strategic Investment, Partnerships and Community-Led Action for Resilient and Inclusive Communities.”

He said many cases of drug abuse were associated with untreated psychological distress, including depression and trauma, particularly among young people who turned to substances instead of accessing professional help.

ALSO READ: Nigeria records 268 Lassa fever deaths as fatality rate rises

“In my work at the NDLEA, I see the cost of that silence daily. Behind many cases of drug abuse is untreated pain: depression nobody noticed, trauma nobody addressed, a young person who found a substance before finding help,” he said.

Marwa added, “Drug use and mental illness feed each other. If we only arrest the symptoms, we will keep missing the cause.”

He said addressing the relationship between substance abuse and mental illness required sustained investment in prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and community-based interventions rather than relying solely on law enforcement.

The NDLEA chairman said the agency had adopted community-led approaches to address the socioeconomic conditions that expose people to drug-related harm, including the development of alternative livelihoods for communities previously dependent on illicit cultivation.

“In three pilot communities in Ondo State, we have worked with the people themselves to build legitimate livelihoods so that families who once depended on illicit cultivation could earn a dignified, lawful income. We plan to scale this to other geopolitical zones,” he said.

According to him, providing people with sustainable sources of income and a stake in their future can ease stress, strengthen families and improve community resilience.

Marwa said the agency’s War Against Drug Abuse campaign was designed to educate young people in schools, campuses and communities before they became involved in substance abuse.

He also highlighted the NDLEA’s 24-hour toll-free helpline, which he said enabled people experiencing distress, including teenagers and worried parents, to seek assistance without paying for the service.

On rehabilitation, Marwa disclosed that more than 53,800 people had passed through the agency’s 31 rehabilitation facilities across the country in the last five years.

He said the figures represented individuals who had received support to return to their families, schools and workplaces.

“The media is more interested in how many people we arrest, how much drug is seized, how many we have jailed, and what are the assets that were forfeited. They don’t like to hear about the other side of our work where we counsel, treat, and rehabilitate those who need help,” he said.

Marwa called for increased funding for mental health services, stressing that mental healthcare should not remain neglected in public health budgets.

“Mental health cannot remain the poorest relation in our health budgets. Every naira spent on prevention, trained personnel, and accessible treatment returns to us in productivity, safer communities, and stronger families,” he said.

He urged the government to recruit more psychiatrists, psychologists, counsellors and community health workers, while integrating mental health services into primary healthcare facilities to reduce barriers to treatment.

The NDLEA boss also called for equitable access to mental healthcare, warning that a system affordable only to wealthy Nigerians would leave vulnerable populations without the support they needed.

He said women, children, persons with disabilities and families displaced by conflict required particular attention in the design and delivery of mental health services.

“Children absorb the stress of their homes long before they can name it, and the pressures they face today will shape the adults they become. The same is true of persons living with disabilities and families displaced by conflict. A system that does not reach them is not yet inclusive,” he said.

Marwa urged government institutions, international development organisations, security agencies, civil society groups and the private sector to work together, noting that mental health challenges cut across health, education, security, justice and social welfare.

He called on participants to leave the conference with concrete commitments to finance effective interventions, expand community-based programmes and prioritise vulnerable groups.

“Let us build a Nigeria where seeking help is an act of courage, where recovery is possible, and where no one suffers alone,” he said.

Earlier, the keynote speaker, Professor Olayinka Omigbodun, Nigeria’s first female professor of psychiatry, called for greater investment in maternal and youth mental health, warning that the country’s development prospects depended significantly on the psychological wellbeing of its younger population.

Delivering a keynote address titled “Empowered Mothers, Empowered Youth: Prioritising Mental Health for National Development,” Omigbodun said mental health interventions for women and children should be treated as essential investments in national development rather than optional healthcare expenditure.

She said Nigeria’s growing population of children and young people made it imperative for the government to strengthen mental health services, improve access to education and address the social and economic conditions that expose young people to psychological distress.

“Investing in the mental health of Nigeria’s children, adolescents, and youth is investing in Nigeria’s future and development,” she said.

Omigbodun explained that mental health challenges often began in childhood and adolescence, with many conditions remaining untreated until they significantly affected an individual’s ability to learn, work and participate in society.

Citing estimates from the World Health Organisation, she said up to 20 per cent of children and adolescents experienced a mental health condition, while about half of adult psychiatric illnesses began before the age of 14 and three-quarters before age 25.

She warned that neglecting the mental health of young people could undermine educational outcomes, productivity and the country’s capacity to build a skilled workforce.

“Nigeria’s prosperity depends on its people, particularly the youth,” she said, adding that mental wellbeing was fundamental to human capital development.

According to her, depression and anxiety can impair children’s ability to learn, attend school regularly and maintain good health, with consequences for their future productivity.

“The wealth of nations comes from their human capital, not petroleum,” she said, urging policymakers to place greater emphasis on the health, education and development of Nigerian children.

The professor said the first eight years of a child’s life were particularly important in shaping future health and development, warning that exposure to poverty, violence, insecurity, neglect and poor-quality education could have lasting consequences.

She explained that adverse childhood experiences could affect brain development and emotional regulation, increasing the risk of mental health conditions and other difficulties later in life.

Omigbodun said children who experienced abuse, neglect, or separation from their primary caregivers were particularly vulnerable, stressing the importance of stable family relationships and supportive environments during childhood.

She also warned that violence against women and mothers could have consequences for children’s psychological development, noting that maternal depression and anxiety could affect the ability of caregivers to bond with and support their children.

“An empowered woman is not one that never struggles, but one who struggles, gets attention, and their distress is noticed,” she said.

Omigbodun called for maternal mental health screening to become a routine component of antenatal and postnatal care, alongside measures to improve women’s access to education, economic opportunities and social protection.

She said women working in the informal sector required targeted support because illness, pregnancy and inadequate social protection could threaten their livelihoods and expose them to additional stress.

The professor also advocated stronger enforcement of child protection laws, an end to child marriage, protection against gender-based violence and improved access to schooling for girls.

“Every girl in this country should be in school. School is a mental health intervention. It is a mental health intervention,” she said.

She further urged the government to integrate mental health services into schools, supported by counselling, nutrition programmes and school feeding, noting that psychological support alone would not adequately address the needs of hungry children.

“You cannot do mental health counselling on a hungry child, it’s a waste of time. You first of all feed the child, and that’s why school feeding programs are so crucial for mental health in this nation,” she said.

Omigbodun said young people also needed access to vocational skills and decent employment, while mental health services should be incorporated into national development plans, budgets and human capital policies.

She called for stronger family support systems to reduce the burden on mothers, adding that husbands and other relatives had important roles in protecting women’s wellbeing and creating safe home environments.

“Violence against mothers is a direct cause of maternal depression, and children see it,” she said.

The keynote speaker also stressed the importance of community-based treatment and livelihood support for people living with mental health conditions, citing interventions through which people with psychosocial disabilities had been employed and supported to rebuild their lives.

She said recovery involved more than medication and psychotherapy, adding that employment, financial independence and social inclusion were important components of sustained wellbeing.

The professor urged policymakers to recognise mental health as a development investment, rather than a cost, arguing that early interventions could improve educational achievement, workforce participation and social stability.

In his remarks, the Deputy Chief of Staff to the President, Senator Ibrahim Hassan Hadejia, who represented Vice-President Kashim Shettima, said Nigeria had made progress in reforming its mental health laws but needed to sustain efforts to improve public understanding and access to care.

Hadejia recalled his participation in the passage of the Mental Health Act during the Ninth National Assembly, which replaced the country’s outdated legal framework dating back to the colonial-era Lunacy Act.

He said the previous law reflected an approach centred on the detention and containment of people with mental health conditions rather than treatment and rehabilitation.

According to him, the old legislation also used derogatory terms to describe people with mental health conditions, reinforcing stigma and misunderstanding.

Hadejia said the legislative process involved years of efforts across successive National Assemblies before the new law was passed and signed by former President Muhammadu Buhari in January 2023.

He congratulated the organisers and urged participants to sustain discussions on mental health and wellbeing beyond the conference.

Earlier, the Chairperson of Intersect Consortium, Amuna Lawan Ali, said the fifth edition of the conference should mark a shift from awareness creation to practical action on mental health.

She said the gathering had evolved from a one-day event into a platform for sustained engagement, adding that the objective was to ensure that discussions translated into decisions and measurable improvements in people’s lives.

Ali said mental health interventions should extend beyond hospitals to homes, schools, workplaces and communities, where people often first experience stress, trauma, loneliness and social exclusion.

She called for stronger collaboration among government, development partners, civil society, religious and traditional institutions, academia and the private sector.

“Partnership must mean more than coming together for an annual conference. It must mean taking responsibility together and remaining accountable for what happens after we leave this room,” she said.

Ali also called for greater involvement of people with lived experience of mental health conditions and their families in shaping policies and services intended to support them.

She said community members, teachers, religious leaders and primary healthcare workers should be equipped to identify signs of distress and connect affected people with professional services.

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Intersect Consortium, Dr Vincent Udenze, illustrated the importance of timely intervention by sharing the experience of Elizabeth, a Nigerian woman who had been living with schizophrenia and was found in a distressed state near the United States Embassy in Abuja.

Elizabeth recounted that she had gone to the embassy for a visa interview in 2024 when she experienced a crisis that left her unable to remember her identity or contact her family.

She said Udenze offered her food, helped establish contact with her family, and arranged for her to receive treatment at his hospital, where she spent more than a month.

According to Elizabeth, Udenze subsequently provided transport for her mother to Abuja, secured accommodation for her, furnished the apartment and offered her employment with the consortium.

She said the support enabled her to regain stability, concentrate on her work and care for her children.

Elizabeth urged Nigerians to support people living with mental health conditions instead of stigmatising or abandoning them.

“If Dr V had not found me that night, I would have been on the street too. But I thank God I got the support,” she said.

She added that people experiencing mental health challenges needed understanding, treatment and opportunities to rebuild their lives.

“You can also contribute to people’s lives who are out there, who are suffering from other mental illness that we know nothing about,” she said.