British-Nigeria musician Azeez Adeshina Fashola, also known as Naira Marley has been appointed Advocate for War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) campaign by The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on Thursday, 17 during a visit by the singer to NDLEA national headquarters in Abuja.
Naira Marley made an appeal to Nigerians and Marlians to stop abusing drugs as it is not good. He said “I like to urge Nigerians, the Marlians and all the Nigerian youths to stop doing drugs because it’s not good for your well-being. Let us stop substance abuse in any form. I’ve keyed into this campaign to support NDLEA to stop drugs on the street, please join us. It’s really not good, it makes you go back into clime, it does a lot of things to you.”
Checks by News About Nigeria revealed that NDLEA reported that over 14 million Nigerians are involved in drug abuse in June, and a separate survey indicated that the majority of drug abusers fall within the 15-30 age range.
Olayinka Fadile, the Commandant of NDLEA Oyo State, has expressed concern about the alarming rate of youth involvement in drug abuse.
He said “The agency is worried about the rate at which our youths abuse drugs. They have graduated from hemp smoking to other and more dangerous synthetic drugs that are now manufactured under various names like colos, loud and all sorts of others too numerous to mention, making to future look bleak for our youths if care is not taken.”
Naira Marley’s appointment sparked controversy as people questioned his lifestyle. Tonto Dike reacted to the NDLEA posts on his appointment saying, “I’ll unfollow you now. You guys are the most unserious set of folks.”
Naira Marley is known for openly smoking and abusing substances, as evidenced by his singles like “Gaza” and “drug test” which encourage drug use. His fans, known as Marlians just like their leader exhibit similar traits.
Just like the newly appointed Advocate, other musicians including Olamide and Burna Boy have been questioned for encouraging followers to smoke and abuse substances.
