Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has revealed that an attempt to embrace smoking as a young man could have led him down a destructive path, stating, “I could have become addicted.”
Obasanjo made the disclosure on Sunday during the Fly Above The High anti-drug campaign conference held in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
Obasanjo, who admitted he once attempted smoking, claimed that his inability to tolerate it saved him from a path of potential addiction.
“If I had persisted, I could have become addicted. Once you get involved, it is difficult to get out,” Obasanjo said.
The former president also spoke on the troubling rise of drug abuse in West Africa, a problem he said he encountered firsthand as Chairman of the West African Drug Commission under the Kofi Annan Foundation.
Obasanjo stated that members of the commission crisscrossed West Africa with the belief that the region was free from drugs, which he said came mainly from Latin America and go to North America and Europe.
“But to our dismay, displeasure, and pain, at the end of the exercise, we found out that West Africa has equally been a centre for drug consumption in a very bad way,” he added.
“That was more than 10 years ago, so the situation has since gone worse. And whatever applies to West Africa applies to all other parts of Africa.”
The former president, however, warned Nigerian youths to steer clear of psychoactive drugs, adding that “There’s nothing drug can do for you except destruction.”
He also urged those already addicted to psychoactive drugs to seek help and warned the society against stigmatisation.
In 2023, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency reported that approximately 14.3 million Nigerians are involved in drug abuse.
The agency said 14.3 million Nigerian drug abusers are within the age range of 15 and 64 years, adding that more women are now involved.
