Freedom Foundation Offers Refuge to Drug Addicts
Before the Lagos State government took the onerous responsibility of clearing the under-bridges of Lagos of undesirable elements, Marine Bridge-a neighbourhood straddling Apapa and Ajegunlewas notorious for crime and drug abuse. Some called it the headquarters of drug trafficking. All manner of hard substances from cocaine to heroin were sold there under the full glare of children whose parents were either drug addicts or homeless. Thieves, touts, all manner of vagrants sought refuge under the busy bridge. There they lived, eat, smoke and fight as well. Benches, chairs, tables and sometimes the cold, untarred ground served as their bed while condemned refrigerators took a new function as wardrobes. Crime was very rife in this part of Lagos. The major offices and warehouses in Apapa became easy targets for the criminal elements in Marine Beach who routinely burgled and vandalized them. Whatever monies they made were channeled back into purchase of cocaine and heroin. It was a gloried lifestyle that provided a sort of escapism from the harsh realities on ground. Some of them under the influence of the hard drugs believed that Marine Beach was their own Shangri-la.
It was during those notorious days of Marine Beach that Dr. Tony Rapu and his Freedom Foundation team reached out to some of the drug addicts. He took along with him veteran comedians Ali Baba and Julius Agwu who tried to interact with them but some turned their backs. Only few like a young man who identified himself as Ndubuisi was willing to go through the painstaking rehabilitation process.
‘I started smoking cigarettes but at a point, I didn’t derive pleasure from it. A friend introduced me to cocaine and ever since, I never looked back. It gives me the ultimate high. I’m a heavy cocaine smoker,” he told the crew.
Having ran away from home and left his parents in total despair, Ndubuisi was reluctant at first to accept the help from the faith-based non-profit organisation. There was no genuine reason at the time to abandon the reckless lifestyle which he had been living for over 10 years. Nicknamed Lion, he was the man in control of the drug and other lootings carried out by the gang. As his nickname implied, he always got the lion share and most of his peers revered him. Nevertheless, after much coercion, he decided to give the organisation a try.
The first process was detoxification. It wasn’t an easy one. Depending on the level of consumption of these substances, the victim can suffer intense discomfort and withdrawal syndromes. However, the goal of any detox program is physiological healing after long-term drug addiction – first through stabilization, then through a period of detoxification. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), after stabilization, the focus of detox shifts to the monitoring and support of the various processes of the body as it rids itself of the drug, and to managing the often unpleasant withdrawal symptoms that result.
Ndubuisi was resilient to conquer this first stage of recovery. Understanding the need to nip in the bud the root cause of drug addiction in order to avoid relapse, Freedom Foundation moved Ndubuisi to its rehabilitation center for men, House of Refuge. There, he went through counseling and skill acquisition programmes. The foundation took a step further by reuniting him with his aged parents. His parents were overjoyed seeing Ndubuisi again who looked nothing like the scarecrow he was before.
“I couldn’t believe he can be this robust because before he looked so skinny like the letter ‘I’,” his mother enthused.
After a year, Ndubuisi was free to leave the House of Refuge. He got a job at one of the ports in Apapa. Unfortunately, an ugly incident will lead him back to the dangerous lifestyle of drug abuse. He was unlucky to be at the wrong place at a wrong time. He was on his way home from work when he and a colleague were arrested as suspects of a robbery that took place at a spot close to a Naval Barrack. He was sent to Ikoyi Prison and spent 40 days there before he was finally sentenced to jail with a bail option despite his innocence. The Freedom Foundation on hearing of his latest ordeal paid the fine and he was released.
That singular trauma triggered a relapse. The next time his parents learnt about their son, it was tragic. Someone spotted him at Marine Beach in tattered clothes roaming around like a mad man. His panicked parents brought a chain to capture him. But Ndubuisi was too strong for the shackles. Few days after he was brought home in chains, he escaped. By now, his parents had lost all hope.
Relapse is a regular occurrence in the drug rehabilitation process, particularly if the individual suffers a trauma. Study shows that over 60 percent of drug users relapse when they do not receive professional treatment for a long while.
Ndubuisi was lucky to have the Freedom Foundation come to his rescue. Again, he went through the recovery process, this time very successful.
Ndubuisi and others like him have benefited from Freedom Foundation’s sustained effort to rehabilitate drug addicts and keep them off the streets. The heart-rending stories of their transformation are captured in a 13- series documentary titled ‘My Lagos Diaries’ which started airing last month. Viewers get to see the dramatic conversion of the victims and their heart-breaking lifestyles as a result of peer pressure, indiscipline, financial struggles and depression. There is no age limit as both the young and old are caught up in this world of crime and drug abuse. What the Freedom Foundation, however, does is to bring hope to victims of such harsh situations by providing medical, financial, and emotional support.