The Reality of Societal Vices: Hard Drug, Premarital Sex, fornication and the Law

The Reality of Societal Vices: Hard Drug, Premarital Sex, fornication and the Law

At this hour I must write for I feel the muscles in my phalanges wanting to dribble and scribble words on paper. At this hour I must write on the state of nation which bothers one too much that I cannot but broach my thoughts and views on this issue. At this hour I must write that the people of our dear nation must understand clearly that at this time in history certain things are fundamental to unleashing the swords of impoverishment and draining of something essential to the development of any nation. At this hour I must write that the deplete in richness of a nation in as much as the typical modern African leader may swindle and siphon the treasury of a nation, it is not to say that one of the source of the symptoms of a poverty-stricken nation cannot be the citizens themselves. We must understand that the government cannot fend for and/or provide the basic necessities for everybody but can create an avenue for every citizen to amass wealth and own personal property.

In the same breath, I have come to understand that certain things need to be rectified at the grassroots level to ensure a proper foundation for the success of nation's building. This is not the government but the people themselves and the government can not be held responsible for this act nor be blamed for the idleness of this youth who without ambition and vision find recourse in petty drugs like "tramadol", "Marijuana", "rephnol", "cough syrups" among others.

They not only resort to this reproachable act but they also explore other avenues like the formation of secret societies, some of them being the "the black axe" confraternity, "the sealords" confraternity, "the bird" popularly called "eye" in Yoruba among others, where they initiate interested persons who sought political, social and economic gains. Being tools of political vendetta when there is an election and economic gains ranging from fighting for people's land notably called "ajagungbale" to the very height of exploiting persons who walks alone at night by obtaining whatever fortunes they could find in such person's possession at that time. The height of it all is that they under the name of such society carry out armed robbery and I wonder where they get the "cold irons" to execute such social vice. Some persons I have talked to about this issue says that these societies have access to such weapons of mass destruction through their political godfathers who fails to retrieve whatever weapons distilled to them for political vendetta after elections. Another source says that the policemen are accessory to such criminal act who most times would rent out government weapons for certain amount of money. Examining the initiation process carefully, I realized that they take their recruits to a particular forest, deserted forest, where there are no persons except them and beat such person like they would beat a petty thief in a fierce hostile market mob. I realize with time that they aim, by beating mercilessly such recruit, to become so rugged that he can withstand any form of suffering or torture and also execute any form of assignment even of asked to execute or kill his parents or like killing members of the opposing societies et al.

This is how it is in the slums of Lagos, Ogun, Osun, Kwara, Benin, Port Harcourt among others. I lived in the slums of Mushin, Lagos state for over 20years and I grew up in an environment where no policemen can arrest any man who freely smokes Indian hemp in the society even the useless policemen are escorts to the vans that deliver such drugs to the warehouse from where it is distributed in the whole of the area of Mushin and I can tell you that it is the same situation in the slums of Mushin that I met in the slums of Ikorodu, Lagos state. Some few years back, exactly 2009, the societal unrest in Mushin is a fire ignited by the so-called cultists sect in which the Fashola administration had to intervene and situate armor tanks of policemen at every streets in Mushin. Nearly every person I knew, some as friends and some as neighbors on the street, who are members of a cultists group died during this encounter between two cultists sect and I came to a conclusion that those who joined cult groups are persons who have resigned to fate that they can never go beyond what they are and has sold their life to the objectives of the said society. Few of them who survived always have it at the back of their mind that one day, death would come calling. I almost forgot to add this that cult members are so fetish that no bullet can break their diabolical incisions except where two irons fight, you know one would bend for the other. No cutlass also can pierce their skin where there is a strong "igbadi", a fetish waist rope and also "ifunpa", a arm rope , to prevent any cut from such cutlass but not in all cases these diabolical charms seems effectiv. There are sometimes when they meet their waterloo, a powerful fetishist.

Another thing of note at the grassroots level that gives me concern is the matter of birth rate. When you realize that the Registrar for wedding is useless and does not need certificate to join man and wife together because the untimely pregnancy of the lady would serve the same purpose in this instance. You will see a man with no single art or craft to fend for himself not to talk of feeding a pregnant wife which he brought upon himself suffering. I wonder how some ladies would willingly open their thighs for men who they know cannot take care of them and end up carrying his baby. You have no work, yet the pole immediately beneath your abdomen cannot resist anything in skirt.

Another thing of concern is the age of most of these girls who get pregnant for these useless men are of ages 13 to 17 most times. I have witnessed two fifteen year old girls who are already a mother of two children each and their parent who send them packing to go and live with their respective husbands even if such husband still lives under his parent's roof and still collect money for his upkeep and expenses. What kind of child do you think such couple would raised? Most times the child raised by such couples end up replacing the lost spanner in the realm of the cultists, drug addicts and also tread the path of his father by impregnating a woman at a tender age of 17. He also becomes a father at such an age without any formal education or any thing of worth to bring for proper upbringing of the child.

I recognize the fact that the most developed nation in the world also have slums and I am not saying that nothing good person has ever come out of the slum for I am a product of the slum, my elder brother is also a product and we are doing fine and we lived there almost all our lives but the bad things that come out of it is beclouding the good things. If it continues like this, they are major setbacks to a developing nation like ours. Its subsistence is a huge detriment to the existence of an healthy development in the country.

One thing we have never advert our minds to which is the source and root of all these evils and most societal vices is the easy access of youths to cheap drugs, I mean hard drugs. It is so funny that these drugs which are prohibited from being sold to any persons except with a doctor's report is now being sold without warrant of such. Pharmacists after being tipped with a token or a paltry sum deliver such drugs upon order to these persons who are or have lost hope, frustrated and depressed to find recourse or being a source of strength and to them and the morethey become so addicted. These addicts call it inspirational source. Some persons derive so much pleasure from feeling very sluggish and slow after gulping down certain quantities of codeine, most times they are cough syrups like parkalin with codeine, emzolyn, etc.

In another evaluation and deep observation, I realize some of them use this drug in order to sexually satisfy their female sex tool, so to speak, in bed when displaying sexual somersaults and acrobatics. They use these drugs to make themselves last longer with women in bed and as such, these women get so attracted to their bed prowess and would elegantly call upon them anytime to ride them rough and in the course taking away all the sweetness their respective husband will enjoy when they get married. But usually, they remain together because along the line this woman gets pregnant.

That's why among youth nowadays especially the male folks usually their point of discourse evolve from how to bed a woman. They even narrate their experience with a lady they bed the previous night just to improve on every bed skill and what stimulants to take to empower such skill. These
stimulants include herbal concoctions of different colors soaked in alcohol, tramadol, rephnol, some smoke Indian hemp. Another source observed said that women even smoke the "SK" variety of Marijuana to satisfy or ride men in bed. This variety is known to be very strong and very intoxicating. From reports it is said that after taking this variety, when you walk you feel like your feet are not touching the ground but you walking on the air.

The law is a tool of social engineering and no doubt it cannot totally throw into extinction social vices because the object of Law is man and when these vices have eaten so deep into the very flesh of man, the solution is not always to remove the flesh from the frame of the body as that would amount to annihilating the entire human race.

It is however pride worthy to know that there are laws that guide the use of any hard drug in the country and there are law enforcement agency like the NDLEA and NAFDAC who regulate the intake of such drug in the country. NAFDAC was established by Decree 15 of 1993 as amended by Decree 19 of 1999 and now the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control Act Cap N1 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.

This Act mandates NAFDAC to regulate and control the manufacture, importation, exportation, distribution, advertisement, sale and use of food, drugs, cosmetics, chemicals, detergents, medical devices and packaged water (Known as regulated products).

"The threat of illicit drugs is real and concerted effort is required to halt the activities of drug trafficking cartels. The Agency in 2015 seized drugs weighing 903,624.56kg with an estimated street value of over twenty-two (22) billion naira. Drug control is an important campaign that affects national security and public health. We must collectively rise up against drug trafficking organisation. The effects of drugs on children, youths, families and communities is unimaginable. There is need for a greater understanding of the effects of drugs by members of the public" the chairman of NDLEA Col. Muhammad Mustapha Abdallah (retd.)stated.

National Drug Law Enforcement Agency is established by the promulgation of Decree Number 48 of 1989, now Act of Parliament, was aimed at exterminating illicit drug trafficking and consumption in the Nigerian society. It is a well-known fact that any involvement in drugs, especially their importation, exportation, sale, transfer, purchase, cultivation, manufacture, extraction and possession is universally unacceptable. The establishment of the NDLEA was Nigeria’s deliberate attempt at joining the rest of the world in getting rid of this cankerworm within her borders. And also In pursuance of the objectives as contained in the statute establishing the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, the Agency’s activities are anchored on six functional divisions, namely;
i. Investigation
ii. Prosecution
iii. Drug Demand Reduction
iv. Training, Research and Development
v. Assets Laundering and
vi. Intelligence

From the foregoing, it is clear that sufficient laws are in operation to exterminate drug trafficking and regulate its usage also among youths most importantly. It is clear from the provisions of Section 11(d) of the NDLEA act that any person without lawful authority who smokes, inhale or inject himself with cocaine, LSD, heroine, Marijuana, etc is liable for a fifteen years term imprisonment but not exceeding 25years.

In contrast, the law is however silent on premarital sex, fornication, prostitution under the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 but it is criminalized under the Penal Code of the Northern states in Nigeria. And it is also a fundamental provision of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution that the law cannot punish any offence not written or prescribed by the law as being punishable, Section 36(8).

In ethics, the relativity of moral views prompt how the society frowns at such act. These act are held to be outrageous that can disrupt public morality as quipped by Viscount Simond in the controversial case of Shaw v. DPP where the learned judge from another jurisdiction poignantly quipped that there still remain in the court power to enforce the fundamentals of the laws to protect the safety of the public morality as it ensures public safety.

In the 20th century argument of Lord Devlin and Lon Fuller, Fuller was of the view that why should the law criminalized matters of privacy like prostitution. That why should the law intervene in matters that harm oneself in so far as such action does not harm the public.

Religion upheld a particular side in this regard. The Bible condemned prostitution, fornication and also premarital sex and also the Quran pass an injunction that do not move near fornication (Zinah).

It is on this note that I humbly submit that social vices is a termite that eats the pillars of development in this country and no country of the world can totally douse its fires from burning but through certain institutions and orientations and seminars, members of the public can be educated and eventually reduction in the rate of social vices is by that time inevitable.

Yusuf-Amuda Lateef Adeyemi (Yemi LA_Poet)
LLB2
Faculty of Law
Obafemi Awolowo University