Drug Abuse: Winner Emerges in 2019 Monster Hit Story Contest
An Enugu based pastor; Gabriel Obiano has emerged winner of the 2019 Monster Hit Story Contest.
The competition is an initiative of Ororo Pattaya 20km and David Jones, who is known for his anti-drug advocacy among Nigerian Youth.
The contest, which ran on Instagram and Facebook between April and May, was according to Jones designed for Nigerian youths on social media to share true-life story that borders on any life changing experiences on drug and substance abuse.
Report of a survey conducted by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), in collaboration with the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), revealed that the rate of drug abuse in Nigeria in 2018 was more than twice the global average of 5.3 per cent.
According to the report, 14.3 million Nigerians are involved in abuse of drugs such as marijuana, opioids and cough syrup, adding that those who are involved in abuse of such drugs were mainly between age 15 and 64 years, while one in every four of them is a woman.
Obiano’s story titled “How I Lost My Girlfriend To Drug Abuse” was a revelation on the disturbing trend of drug abuse and addiction among Nigerian women.
The Port Harcourt based pastor narrated how he met Esther and later proposed to her, only to discover she was a drug addict who had gone as far as using cocaine.
“I met Esther in a ministry (name withheld), in Port Harcourt. As a young preacher who was willing to settle down as of that moment after my Bible School, I picked interest in her.
“We started dating and finally I proposed to her. She accepted the proposal. Meanwhile she told me how the father abandoned her and her mother at her early stage of life. She told me she can’t give account of where the dad is now. Due to hard life; she (Esther) left her mom too and moved to Port Harcourt.
“I felt her pain and advised her to make out time to visit her mom and know how she was doing and find out if she is aware of her dad’s whereabouts. She turned the advice down.