By Omoyeni Ojeifo
More than 53,843 people have passed through rehabilitation facilities operated by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in five years, as its Chairman, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retired), calls for greater investment in mental healthcare.
Marwa disclosed the figure on Tuesday, while chairing the fifth edition of The Conversation Conference (TCC 5.0), organised by Intersect Consortium in Abuja.
PerSecondNews reports that the conference, led by UK-based Consultant Psychiatrist, Dr. Vincent Udenze, focused on strategic investments, partnerships and community-led action to improve mental health outcomes.
Marwa, who also chaired the first edition in 2022 and the third edition, said the conference had grown into one of Nigeria’s largest gatherings on mental health, adding that its timing, days after World Mental Health Day, offered an opportunity to move from awareness to action.
He linked drug abuse to untreated mental health conditions, recalling how stigma and silence often prevent people from seeking help.
“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,” Marwa said.
Speaking on strategic investments, partnerships and community-led action, Marwa emphasized that mental wellbeing could not thrive where poverty and hopelessness pushed people towards harmful behaviour.
“Your theme speaks of strategic investments, partnerships and community-led action. At the NDLEA, these are not abstract ideas,” he said.
“They are things we have done. Mental wellbeing 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 noted.
The NDLEA boss explained that the initiative was designed with residents to help families establish lawful sources of income and build resilience.
“When people have hope, income and a stake in their future, stress eases, families stabilise and communities grow resilient,” he maintained.
“These were solutions designed with communities, not imposed on them. We intend to scale this model across the country and invite our partners to walk that road with us,” Marwa noted.
He also highlighted the agency’s War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) campaign, which reaches young people in schools, campuses and communities, alongside its toll-free helpline.
“The 24/7 service ensured that “a frightened teenager, a worried mother or a person on the edge can be heard in the dead of night, at no cost,” he stressed.
He called for greater investment in prevention, trained personnel and accessible treatment, arguing that mental healthcare funding would yield benefits for productivity, community safety and family stability.
“Mental health cannot remain the poorest relation in our health budgets,” Marwa said, calling for more psychiatrists, psychologists, counsellors and community health workers.
He also urged the integration of mental health services into primary healthcare so that people would not have to travel long distances to access support.
“Financing must be equitable, and access to treatment should not depend on a person’s income.
Care that only the well-off can afford is not a system, it is a privilege.”
Marwa commended the conference’s focus on women and children, saying survivors of violence, displaced mothers, vulnerable girls, persons with disabilities and families displaced by conflict were often overlooked.
According to him, the NDLEA’s experience showed that recovery lasted longer when mothers, children and entire households received support together.
The NDLEA chairman stressed that no single institution could address the country’s mental health challenges alone, urging the health, education, security, justice and social welfare sectors to work together.
He also lauded Vice President Kashim Shettima, who was represented by Sen. Ibrahim Hassan Hadejia as Special Guest of Honour, for his support, which Marwa said signalled that mental health was a national priority.
Marwa urged participants to commit to financing effective interventions, expanding proven community-based programmes, prioritising women, children and vulnerable people, and holding one another accountable for results.
“Let us build a Nigeria where seeking help is an act of courage, where recovery is possible, and where no one suffers alone,” he added.
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