By Maryam Rabiu Muhammad
“I need help. Will you help me?”
Those were the quiet but heartbreaking words of a 25-year-old university student whose promising future had been overshadowed by drug dependence. Her story reflects the painful reality faced by many young Nigerians whose lives are altered by curiosity, peer pressure, and substance abuse.
For ethical reasons, she will be referred to as Ladi.
A final-year Computer Science student at a leading university in Northern Nigeria, Ladi was intelligent, ambitious, and full of dreams. But those dreams were interrupted when she was apprehended during an operation targeting illicit drug activities. During questioning, she openly admitted to abusing drugs.
Asked how it all began, her answer was simple:
“It started because of a friend.”
Ladi explained that her close friend regularly consumed cough syrup containing codeine, misused sedative medications, and smoked cigarettes. Although she initially discouraged her friend and vowed never to use drugs herself, curiosity eventually got the better of her.
One evening, while visiting her friend’s house, she was persuaded to taste a codeine-based mixture. She took two spoonfuls and, within minutes, experienced an unusually deep sleep.
“It was the deepest sleep I had ever had,” she recalled.
That single decision marked the beginning of a destructive journey.
What began as an experiment soon became a daily habit. Ladi found herself unable to function without codeine syrup and later began smoking cigarettes to prolong its effects. To sustain the addiction, she sought money from friends and boyfriends, fabricated excuses, and sometimes deceived her parents.
The emotional turning point came when her mother quietly entered the room during the interview. Sitting silently across from her daughter, tears streamed down her face. For months, she had watched her child struggle, often helping her into bed after nights spent under the influence while praying she would seek help.
Moved by her mother’s pain, Ladi knelt before her, held her hands, and pleaded:
“Please forgive me, Mum. I want to stop. I know it won’t happen overnight because I’m already addicted. Please don’t cry anymore.”
Then she turned to the interviewer with one heartfelt appeal:
“I need help. Will you help me?”
That moment underscored an important truth: addiction is not overcome through condemnation but through compassion, treatment, and family support.
Ladi’s experience reminds us that addiction rarely begins with a desire to destroy one’s future. More often, it starts with curiosity, peer influence, emotional vulnerability, or the need to belong.
Her story reinforces vital lessons: choose friends wisely, resist experimenting with drugs, maintain open communication within families, strengthen drug education in schools and communities, and ensure those struggling with addiction have access to counseling, rehabilitation, and professional care rather than stigma.
Drug prevention is a shared responsibility involving families, schools, healthcare providers, religious and community leaders, government institutions, and the media.
Ladi’s courage to admit her addiction is the first step toward recovery. If her story inspires even one young person to reject negative peer influence or encourages one family to seek help for a loved one, then her painful experience will serve a greater purpose.