FACT-CHECK: Nigeria now has 14.4%, NOT 13.8 per cent drug prevalence as claimed by Peter Obi

Claim:

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) Mr. Peter Obi claimed Nigeria now has 13.8 percent drug prevalence against the global average of 5 per cent.

Verdict

Incorrect.

Full Story

On Tuesday, November 22, 2022, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi made this claim (see video) during an interactive session with the Christian Association of Nigeria in Abuja.

In the course of the interaction , the presidential candidate lamented prevalent challenges of Nigeria like unemployment, drug abuse and others and noted all these could be addressed by prioritising the production sector.

Apparently unhappy with this situation, Mr. Peter Obi promised to solve these problems by moving the country from consumption to production which he hopes to move people away from poverty. According to him, tthe more you pull people out of poverty, the more you address criminality.

Is it true that Nigeria now has 13.8 percent drug prevalence as against the global average of 5 per cent?

During election campaigns, politicians often drop figures to swing public sentiments in their favour and it is incumbent that politicians that should be held accountable to what they say. Hence we have decided to check the veracity of the claim.

Verification 

In verifying the level of accuracy of this claim, we carefully sorted authentic and approved sources with the latest or last released of data and report on percentage of Drug prevalence in Nigeria.

We consulted some key findings from the National Bureau of Statistic (NBS) which collates and analyses drug use prevalence in Nigeria.

In its first-round report of the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 2017, the drug use prevalence in Nigeria stood at 14.2%

Going forward, we conducted a google search to identify any recent survey that corroborates the NBS reports of 2017. Result eventually identified the 2018 report of  the Nigerian National Drug Use Survey which was supported by the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC). One of the key findings of the Survey report released in 2019 by the UNODC was that 14.4% (which was around 14.3 million) people had used an illicit drug in the previous year.

Courtesy: Drug Use in Nigeria 2018. UNODC 2019.

Similarly , the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Drug Use Report (2018) also put the drug use prevalence in Nigeria at 14.4 per cent.(range 14.0 per cent – 14.8 percent), representing approximately 14.3 million people.

Courtesy NBS report, 2018

In 2022, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd), said that Nigeria was number one cannabis-using country in the world.

He made a reference to the 2018 UNODC report on drug prevalence and admitted that the findings of that 2018 survey still stands to date as the reliable data on drug use prevalence in Nigeria.

According to him, “before then, the drug use profile of Nigeria was sketchy. The survey gave us facts for the first time and we got to know that Nigeria, as of 2018, had a 14.4 percent drug use prevalence’’.

Conclusion:

The reports of National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) 2018, the United Nation Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) World Drug Report 2019 and confirmed by the Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in November 2022, the drug use prevalence in Nigeria was estimated to be 14.4 per cent, (around 14.3 million people) contrary to the assertion by Mr. Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party.

Verdict

Mr. Peter Obi’s claims that “Nigeria now has 13.8 per cent drug prevalence against the global average of 5 per cent.’’ is incorrect.