Social Media Comments on Nigeria’s NDLEA War against Drug Abuse and Propensity to Reduce Drug Peddling
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Date
2023-06
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Journal of African films and Diaspora Studies (JAFDIS)
Abstract
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, terrorism, drug
misuse and drug peddling are currently regarded as the three worst societal issues
in the world (UNODC, 2015). In UNODC's annual National Survey report
released in 2018, 14.3 million persons aged 15 to 64 were said to have taken drugs
in 2017. The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in Nigeria has
frequently updated the public on its successes in the war against drug abuse in the
nation. It is necessary to find out the views of the masses on the war against drug
misuse. Adopting the discourse analysis method, the following findings were
discovered after analysing the comments of Facebook users on the war against
drug abuse and the propensity of those comments to end drug peddling in
Nigeria. Firstly, Nigerians on Facebook support and commend the NDLEA's
strategies for reducing the country's epidemic of drug abuse. Second, Nigerians
expect that the NDLEA's efforts to curtail drug trafficking and abuse in the
nation will be aided by their Facebook remarks. The study concluded by
advocating the need for social media control of explicit content that shows the
usage of hard drugs. The study thus recommended that this research should be
replicated using other social media platforms like Twitter, YouTube, Instagram
and TikTok among others with NDLEA’s war against drug abuse as its main
focus.