Oliver Stolpe, UNODC’s country rep, to join MTN ASAP conversation on drug abuse

Oliver Stolpe, the Country Representative for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Nigeria, will deliver virtual remarks at the Anti-Substance Abuse Programme (ASAP) Drug Convos hosted by MTN Nigeria on Friday, June 25, 2021.

This year’s conference, titled “Share Facts On Drugs. Save Lives”, will highlight the challenges posed by the prevalence of drug abuse in Nigeria, which according to Stolpe, is almost three times as high as the global average.

According to a 2019 survey by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the Center for Research and Information on Substance Abuse with technical support from the UNODC, nearly 15% of Nigeria’s adult population (around 14.3 million people) reported a “considerable level” of use of psychoactive drug substances.

Aside from highlighting the challenges, the MTN ASAP Drug Convos will also “stimulate discourse among thought leaders and policymakers from different walks of life, to bring us much closer towards our goal of freeing our future leaders from the evil attraction of drugs and possible addiction to opioids,” Prince Julius Adelusi-Adeluyi, Chairman, MTN Foundation says.

The conference, launched in December 2018, is in commemoration of the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, also known as ‘World Drug Day,’ observed annually on June 26 since 1989.

A drug use survey in Nigeria conducted by the UNODC in 2018 showed that about three million people were already living with a drug use disorder which means that they will need treatment to combat the addiction.

A poll conducted by UNODC in partnership with UNICEF in 2020 on how COVID-19 was affecting drug use also confirmed drug use worsened after the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020.

Speaking at the conference in 2020, Stolpe had expressed concerns that the budget which would have been made available by the government to provide for drug abuse treatment and prevention programmes is going to be reduced.

“At the stage where all the indicators are pushing people more likely to drug use, we’re actually spending less to help them,” he said.

At this year’s event, other speakers – Odunayo Sanya, the Executive Secretary of the MTN Foundation; Tony Rapu, Senior Pastor, House of Freedom; Bada Akintunde-Johnson, Country Manager, ViacomCBS Africa; Maymunah Kadiri, founder, Pinnacle Medical Services and Olawale Eso, a young Nigerian recovering from drug abuse, will be collating bold ideas towards solving Nigeria’s drug and substance abuse crisis.