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The Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brigadier-General Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd), has said drug use and mental illness feed each other, warning that, “if we only arrest the symptoms, we will keep missing the cause.”
Marwa made the remark Tuesday in Abuja as chairperson of the 5th edition of The Conversation Conference (TCC 5.0) organised by Intersect Consortium, led by UK based Consultant Psychiatrist, Dr. Vincent Udenze.
The NDLEA chairman, who also chaired the first edition in 2022 and the third, said the conference had grown into one of the largest gatherings on mental health in Nigeria, adding that the event, coming days after World Mental Health Day, was a chance to move from awareness to action.
He said behind many drug abuse cases treated at the NDLEA rehab facilities lies untreated pain.
He said: “For too long, we treated mental health as a private burden, hidden behind shame and silence. 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. Drug use and mental illness feed each other. If we only arrest the symptoms, we will keep missing the cause.”
Speaking to the conference on the theme of strategic investments, partnerships and community-led action, Marwa said mental well-being cannot thrive where hopelessness and poverty drive people into harm.
He cited the agency’s work in three pilot communities in Ondo state, where families who once depended on illicit cultivation were helped to build legitimate, lawful livelihoods. He said the NDLEA intends to scale the model nationwide and invited partners to join.
“Your theme speaks of strategic investments, partnerships and community-led action. At the NDLEA, these are not abstract ideas. They are things we have done. Mental well-being cannot thrive where hopelessness and poverty drive people into harm.
In three pilot communities in Ondo state, we worked with the people themselves to build legitimate livelihoods, so that families who once depended on illicit cultivation could earn a dignified, lawful income,” he said.
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