Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi II, has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to assist northern states to fight the menace of drug abuse.
Speaking at a special presidential interactive session with community leaders in Kano, Muhammad Sanusi said according to the records, 35 per cent of youths and women in Kano were into drug abuse.
He said a National Assembly member recently raised this issue indicating that about three million bottles of Codeine syrop are being consumed in Kano and Jigawa states daily.
“Mr president, we have existing laws meant for regulating circulation and sales of drugs, but unfortunately we are not implementing these laws appropriately.
“Some of these laws limit who and who to sale the drugs. For instance, according such laws only licensed pharmacists can sale drugs, but today everybody is selling it to people.”
The emir further lamented that the most unfortunate thing was that the codeine syrup is not being produced in Nigeria.
Sanusi therefore, appealed to the president to stop its importation into the country, noting that Kano state government could only play its quota in fighting the menace within Kano.
Emir Sanusi also appealed to the president to stop importation of rice and maize into the country, saying their importation was killing Nigerian local farmers.
“Mr president, you have achieved so much in agricultural sub-sector but there is problem related to importation of rice and maize. If we continue to import rice and maize, we will kill the morale of our local farmers.
“Nine months ago, one million tons of assorted maize was imported to Kano from Lagos state for our poultry farmers. If the trend left unchecked, our local farmers will be chaised out of farming business. They suppose to be the producers of these produce for our poutry farmers not farmers from our neighbouring countries.
“Today, Benin republic has been identified as a leading country in importation of perboiled rice and we all know that most of the rice imported into Nigeria comes from Benin. So, indirectly, we are empowering Tailand farmers while at the time killing our local farmers,” he said.
The emir therefore advised the president to look into the possibility of reviewing some ECOWAS’s policies in order to enable Nigeria protect its economy objectives.
Sanusi said Nigeria constituted 70 per cent of the economy of the ECOWAS and therefore its economic interest must be protected by all member country.
“If other country members refuse to cooperate with Nigeria, we should not hesitate to close all our borders,” the emir concluded.
By: Unini Ebuka
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