In this article, Juliet Jacob Ochenje writes on how unemployment is affecting Nigerian youths, resulting in mental health issues and contributing to the rising drug abuse problem in the country.
19-year-old Jamilu Mohammed, a resident of Abuja, has been abusing drugs for six years. He traces the root of his addiction problem to home troubles and having to fend for himself from a young age. Though he agreed to speak with African Health Report (AHR) about how he was introduced to the world of drug abuse by his friends, he insisted that his picture must not be attached to the report.
“My father married four wives and my mom had to provide for me and six of my siblings so I had to start going into the streets at an early age to find food,” he stated. ”So I traveled all the way from Kano (to Abuja) and I started hawking, selling pure water (on the streets). From there, I met friends and we began taking drugs, because I didn’t have any guidance.”
According to him, he has been addicted at various times to rohypnol, codeine, tramadol, texolsine and chrystal meth, which he was still taking as at the time he spoke with AHR because, according to him, it helps him to relieve stress and anxiety.
Jamilu’s case is one of many among young Nigerians who turned to substance abuse to cope with mental health issues due to early exposure to the streets, all in a quest to make a living, either for themselves alone, or for themselves and their families. Many youths are in this group, as the search for gainful employment gets more difficult by the day. According to National Bureau of Statistics, in 2022 alone, about 53.40% of Nigerian youths were unemployed and about 14.4% (14.3 million) of people aged between 15 and 64 years abused drugs.
I’ve been depressed just thinking about my life….
Mr Alechenu Desmond is a graduate of Library and Information Science. He said his dependence on his parents after leaving school years ago has been “frustrating,” telling AHR that he “graduated since 2020 and rounded up my youth service 2021 and since then, I’ve been searching for a job.
“I’ve gone to so many companies and organisations but all to no avail. The rate of unemployment is alarming and even the economy is not helping matters. The dream of every child is to go to school, graduate and be able to help their parents but these days, even after graduating, we still fall back on our parents for financial aid and that is so frustrating and could lead to the problem of mental health.
“I know how many times I’ve been depressed just thinking about my life. It is so difficult to survive as a youth that wants to live a crime free life in Nigeria and the government is doing little or nothing to savage the situation and that’s why many youth resort to the life of crime, illegality and drug abuse, just to find peace of mind.”
For Godwin Ichaba, another Nigerian youth, the fact that there is easy access to drugs to abuse is a challenge on its own. At “every corner you go to, you must find drug related transactions going on and this has given easy access to drug abuse and it makes the youths get them at ease,” he disclosed.
Speaking further, he stated: “The government’s roles in helping mental health of youths is crucial and shouldn’t be taken for granted. When political policies are made concerning curbing youthful excesses, there should be provisions that control such policies, for example, one of the things that messes up youthful mental health is hardship, unemployment, monarchical democracy and other forms of political tyranny. When all these issues are dealt with, and there is power circulation, employment opportunities, pure and absolute democracy, the rate of stress among the youths reduces and this also helps their state of mind.”
The nexus between unemployment, mental health and drug abuse
According to Wikipedia, substance abuse, also known as drug abuse, is the use of a drug in amounts or by methods that are harmful to the individual or others. It is a form of substance-related disorder. In some cases, criminal or anti-social behaviour occurs when the person is under the influence of a drug, and long-term personality changes in individuals may also occur.
On the other hand, mental health, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), is a “state of well-being in which the individual realises his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community.”
Conversely, “If people are not enjoying good mental health, definitely they will be more vulnerable to looking for solutions and one of the maladaptive solutions people quickly look for is self medicating themselves with different forms of substances of abuse,” Dr. Nkporbu Aborlo Kennedy, an Associate Professor of Psychiatry, University of Port Harcourt and Consultant Neuropsychiatrist/Mental Health Physician, University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, said, while speaking recently on mental health and challenge of substance abuse among youths in Nigeria.
The mental health expert noted that there is link because unemployment, mental heath issues and substance abuse, saying: “I’m talking about the things that are making situations difficult for us in the country and those are things that speak for good mental health. There are things not available for people to enjoy good mental health and then of course we delve into talking particularly about substance abuse. There is link because if people are not enjoying good mental health, definitely they will be more vulnerable to looking for solutions.
”The economy, as you can see, is of course not smiling at us. It is a time that people will even find it difficult to achieve the usual three square meals and of course, particularly for our youth….There’s a lot of child abuse going on because in an attempt to find solutions, that is to make ends meet, they make the young ones to go on the street. Even those that are underage work on the street and these are all forms of child abuse. Also family quarrels, marital problems, they’re all the problems we meet every day.”
If the government is truly interested in reducing the abuse of drugs in Nigeria, it must begin by creating an enabling environment for youths to thrive.
