By Dadson A Musa
Let us go after the dealers of kush and other drugs with the reminder that our people are in destitution and lack opportunities. Poverty is still very prevalent and our people are suffering in their numbers. I listened to one of the kush takers at a meeting convened by the Ministry of Information and Civic Education when he confessed ” taking to kush after leaving university with a very good degree and applied severally for jobs with no headway and in frustration took to kush taking.” The stories are plenty and familiar. While government has embarked on fighting the kush menace but it should be borne in their mind that lack of opportunities is also driving Sierra Leoneans into this thing
The drug is selling rapidly and putting big money into the pockets of so many people. What used to be sold at Nle.5 is now selling at Nle10, Nle15, or even Nle20. This is how attractive the kush trade has become. Business people have abandoned their once normal businesses that they were surviving on to trade in kush which gives them fast and big money. So there seems to be nexus between kush trade and poverty. The attempt by people to jump at a dangerous trade to get themselves out of poverty is the one thing that makes the fight against Kush very difficult for government. There is also a story of another lady who said she’s into the trade because she “has two kids and the husband is not taking good care of them. “So, she has taken to the trade to take care of her home so the kids do not starve to death. This is a country where government scholarship and other foreign scholarships are not given to deserving students but are sold to those who have money already. And when it comes to sports, youths who are capable and qualify to represent the country are left out and spaces are occupied by officials, or sold to people who have money who are not athletes, or given to people based abroad who cannot perform well.
In developed countries, they have a welfare system which caters for vulnerable citizens so that they don’t get deviant. This is grossly lacking in Sierra Leone which is what government must start looking at to be an alternative to kush trade or intake. Our talented and hard-working youths are wasting away and rendering the future of this country on a thread line. The ravage of kush tends to erode the gains made in the free quality education for the past six years. Kush poses a great threat to one of president Julius Maada Bio’s legacy and if this regime fails to entirely stop this drug trade and intake the president is not going to have anything to point at after leaving office. Some schools of thoughts have said it is a conspiracy theory by individuals to ” undermine the Bio government,” while others have said that it is due to the fact that “West Africa where Sierra Leone is found is a major transit point for drugs to the west.”
I am of the conviction that to fight kush trade and intake, government must alongside intensify the fight against poverty and lack of opportunities in this country. There seems to be a nexus between the two and if that is achieved then in future drug trade and intake will be reduced or stopped. Major investment in sports for our youths must start now. The infighting in our various sporting associations must be seriously looked into by government to make sure our youths get the chance to showcase their talents and make a decent living. Rural poverty in Sierra Leone is very disturbing and can be scary. These are the places that the fight against Kush must be concentrated. And the fight against Kush should not be a situation where you use a sledge hammer to kill a fly. Now that there is a state of emergency which gives the President tremendous power, poverty issues and lack of opportunities need to be looked into to ensure wholistic success.
Copyright –Published in print in Expo Times Newspaper on Friday, May 20TH, 2024 (ExpoTimes News – Expo Media Group (expomediasl.com)