After the 'codeine storm' last year, the BBC documents Tramadol usage within the Boko Haram, vigilantes defending against them and by people who have suffered effects of terrorism.
In the Hollywood movie Beast of No Nation, the lead character Agu gets high off 'Brown Brown' a mixture of cocaine and gun powder.
The drug mixture was also mentioned in the movie Lord of War in which Nicholas Cage is a ruthless drug dealer. It is popular among child soldiers who are used by war lords to fight civil wars in the West Africa in countries like Liberia.
In Nigeria's war against terrorism, the drug of choice is the already notorious Tramadol.
The BBC Report
In June 2018, Stephanie Hegarty published an article for the BBC about the Tramadol consumption that, “the vigilante fighters, those displaced by the war and even the militants themselves” are hooked on the drug. The wave is crippling Borno State where thousands of people are addicted to Tramadol.
Addicted vigilantes
In essence, the northern drug use has created a positive and negative; tramadol-addicted insurgents make for positivity, but addicted vigilantes is a definite negative.
While we hope drugs propel the insurgents to make improperly calculated destructions that lead to foiled attacks, we expect vigilantes, sworn to protect people to be on their best levels of sanity. Mustafa Kolo, a 23-year old vigilante says, “It really helps me in fighting Boko Haram,” he says. “When I go into the bush, even the way I run, the way I walk, it’s different. It gives me strength.”
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Admittedly, one needs a unique level of bravery to face such force as the Boko Haram, that only a few humans possess and this could be a cheap excuse for drug use, you do not use drugs that you do not enjoy. Moreover, enjoyment fuels addiction. Once you are hooked, arguments on bravery cannot avail you.
As the article continues, Hegarty interviews Marcus Ayuba who heads a unit run by Nigeria’s National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA). He tells her that, “The problem is really huge.” The reports goes on to document Ayuba intimating that, “by his own estimate, one in three young people are addicted to the drug” in Maiduguri.
For clarity, the article documents Mustafa Kolo, a 23-year old member of a vigilante unit who confirms that he, “used to take three to four when I first began taking it. But now I have reduced it to one or half.”
Bereaved people and mental health
Some of them take the drug to numb their pain. Parents who have lost children told Ayuba that “What else can we do? We just want to get out of this world.” This bring to the fore, the issue of mental health, post-traumatic stress disorder predated by loss — sometimes repeated in a place desolated by the effects of terrorism.
These ones need comfort and they seek it from wrong places. Nonetheless, people take the loss of loved ones differently. The case of people people who have lost multiple loved ones is however, unimaginable to the average mind. Drug abuse is however not the way. Two wrongs will never make a right.
ALSO READ: How one of Fela's ex-band players is fighting drug abuse in Nigeria
Boko-Tramadol-Haram
Hegarty documents Boko Haram camps where edibles and water were scarce, but had ample supply of Tramadol. According to her, this reality has however been shelved with the Nigerian Army closing in and eliminating several camps.
She documents a 21-year old former Boko Haram member saying, “When you are going for a military operation you will be given it to take, otherwise if you take it you will be killed, They told us when you take it you will be less afraid — you will be strong and courageous.”
Tramadol is the popular drug in Nigeria's battle against Boko Haram. The infamy of this drug would steadily be on the rise as terrorism is still a factor in Northern Nigeria and the Southern region as well because of unemployment and a high poverty level.