Drug Abuse, Mental Illness Feed Each Other, Marwa Warns
…NDLEA boss seeks increased mental health funding, urges priority for women, children
By Editor 
The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (rtd), has warned that Nigeria’s fight against drug abuse will remain incomplete without adequate investment in mental healthcare, stressing that untreated psychological distress is driving substance abuse among vulnerable Nigerians.
Marwa said the relationship between drug use and mental illness was mutually reinforcing, warning that a response focused solely on arrests and enforcement would fail to address the underlying causes of addiction.
“If we only arrest the symptoms, we will keep missing the cause,” he said on Tuesday in Abuja, calling for increased mental health financing, accessible treatment and stronger collaboration among government institutions and community organisations.
Marwa spoke while chairing the fifth edition of The Conversation Conference (TCC 5.0), organised by the Intersect Consortium at the Nicon Luxury Hotel, Abuja. The event, led by UK-based consultant psychiatrist, Dr Vincent Udenze, came days after the 2026 World Mental Health Day and focused on strategic investments, partnerships and community-led action.
Drawing on the NDLEA’s experience in drug prevention and rehabilitation, Marwa said many people caught in substance abuse had underlying psychological distress that went unnoticed or untreated until their conditions worsened.
“For too long, we treated mental health as a private burden, hidden behind shame and silence. In my work at the NDLEA, I see the cost of that silence daily,” he said.
“Behind many cases of drug abuse is untreated pain: depression nobody noticed, trauma nobody addressed, a young person who found a substance before finding help. Drug use and mental illness feed each other. If we only arrest the symptoms, we will keep missing the cause.”
The NDLEA chairman said the situation demanded a shift from an approach centred largely on controlling illicit substances to one that combined enforcement with prevention, early intervention, mental healthcare and sustained support for people recovering from addiction.
He disclosed that more than 53,843 people had passed through the agency’s 31 rehabilitation facilities across the country in the past five years, describing the figure as evidence of the scale of the recovery effort required.
“Behind that number are fathers returned to their families and young people returned to school and work,” he said.
Marwa called for a substantial increase in funding for mental healthcare, warning that the sector could no longer remain neglected in public health budgets.
He said investment in prevention, trained personnel and accessible treatment would yield broader benefits, including improved productivity, safer communities and stronger families.
According to him, Nigeria needs more psychiatrists, psychologists, counsellors and community health workers, alongside the integration of mental health services into primary healthcare to ensure that people can access help without travelling long distances.
“No one travels hundreds of kilometres to be heard,” he said, arguing that mental health services must be available at the community level rather than concentrated in a few specialised facilities.
He also called for equitable financing, insisting that access to care should not depend on a person’s financial circumstances.
“Care that only the well-off can afford is not a system, it is a privilege,” he said.
Beyond healthcare financing, Marwa identified poverty, hopelessness and limited economic opportunities as factors that could increase vulnerability to harmful substance use.
He cited the NDLEA’s intervention in three pilot communities in Ondo State, where residents who previously depended on illicit cultivation were supported to establish legitimate livelihoods.
He said the initiative demonstrated the importance of involving communities in designing interventions rather than imposing solutions on them.
“Mental wellbeing cannot thrive where hopelessness and poverty drive people into harm,” he said, adding that families with sustainable incomes and a stake in their future were better positioned to build resilience.
The agency, he disclosed, intends to expand the model nationwide and is seeking partnerships to support its implementation.
Marwa also highlighted the NDLEA’s War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) campaign, which targets young people through sensitisation programmes in schools, tertiary institutions and communities.
He said the agency’s 24-hour toll-free helpline provided an avenue for people struggling with substance use and their families to seek assistance, particularly when they had nowhere else to turn.
“A frightened teenager, a worried mother or a person on the edge can be heard in the dead of night, at no cost,” he said.
The NDLEA boss further urged policymakers and service providers to prioritise women, children and other vulnerable groups in the delivery of mental health services.
He identified survivors of violence, displaced mothers, girls without adequate support, persons living with disabilities and families uprooted by conflict as groups whose needs were often overlooked.
According to him, the agency’s rehabilitation experience shows that recovery is more sustainable when support extends beyond the individual to include the mother, the child and the wider household.
He called for stronger coordination among the health, education, security, justice and social welfare sectors, saying no single institution could effectively address the complex relationship between mental illness, substance abuse and social vulnerability.
Marwa, who also chaired the conference’s first edition in 2022 and its third edition, commended the organisers for sustaining the platform and expanding conversations around mental health in Nigeria.
He also thanked Vice-President Kashim Shettima, who was represented at the event by Senator Ibrahim Hassan Hadejia, for supporting the conference, saying such participation signalled the importance of mental health to national development.
He urged participants to translate discussions into measurable commitments, particularly in funding effective interventions, expanding community-based programmes and protecting vulnerable populations.
“Let us build a Nigeria where seeking help is an act of courage, where recovery is possible, and where no one suffers alone,” he said.
Nigeria’s response to substance abuse has increasingly involved prevention campaigns, treatment and rehabilitation alongside drug interdiction and arrests. Marwa’s remarks underscore the need to strengthen the mental healthcare component of that response, particularly as stigma, inadequate access to treatment and socioeconomic pressures can prevent people from seeking help.
The challenge, he suggested, is not simply to stop drug use but also to ensure that people experiencing psychological distress can obtain timely support before substance use deepens their difficulties.
